








i.'t- 









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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX, 

(A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW YORK), 



nEI.tVERKl) IN THK 



House of Representatives and in the Senate, 



FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS. FIRST SESSION 



PL'BLISHKD HV ORDER OF CONGRESS. 



WA.SHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT I'RINTING OFFICE. 

I 890. 




Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assembled. That there be printed of the eulogies 
delivered in Congress upon the late Samuel Sullivan Cox, a Repre- 
sentative in the Fifty-first Congress from the State of New York, twenty- 
five thousand copies, of which six thousand copies shall be for the use of 
the Senate and nineteen thousand copies shall be for the use of the House 
of Representatives: and the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is 
hereby, directed to have printed a portrait of the said Samuel Sullivan 
Cox, to accompany said eulogies, and for the purpose of engraving and 
printing said portrait the sum of one thousand dollars, or so much thereof 
as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the 
Treasury not otherwise appropriated. That of the quota to the House 
of Representatives the Public Printer shall set apart fifty copies, which he 
shall have bound in full morocco, with gilt edges, the same to be deliv- 
ered when completed to the widow of the deceased. 

Approved, July i6, 1890. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



December i8, 1889. 

Mr. CUMMINGS, of New York. Mr. Speaker, it is with sin- 
cere sorrow that I announce the death of my late colleague, the 
Hon. S.'iMUEL SuLLiv.\N Cox, a Representative from Ohio in 
tlie Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, and Thirty-eighth 
Congresses; also a Representative from New York in the Forty- 
first, Forty-second, Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty- 
sixth, Forty-sev-enth, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth 
Congresses; also a Representative-elect from the State of New 
York in the Fifty-first Congress. Later in the session I shall 
ask the House to take appropriate action in regard to the death 
of my late colleague. I send the following resolutions to the 
desk, and ask for their adoption: 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Rt'so/vcd, That the House has heard with deep regret and profound 
sorrow of the death of Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox, late a Representative 
from the State of New York. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the House do now adjourn. 

April 19, 1890. 
The Speaker. The hour of i o'clock having arrived, the 
Clerk will read the special order. 

3 



4 Address of Mr. Cionviings., of New York, on the 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Reso/ved, That Saturday, April 19, 1890, beginning at i o'clock, be set 
apart for paying tribute to the memory of Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox, 
late a member of the House of Representatives from the Ninth district 
of the State of New '^'ork. 

Mr. CuMMiNGS submitted resolutions; which were read, as 
follows : 

Reso/vri/, That the business of the House be now suspended, that 
opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. Samuel 
Sullivan Cox, late a Representative from the State of New York. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased, and in recognition of his eminent abihties as a distinguished 
public servant, the House, at the conclusion of these memorial proceed- 
ings, shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be instructed to communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

The question being taken on the resolutions, they were 
adopted unanimously. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. CUMMINGS, OF NEW YORK. 

Mr. Speaker. I stand at a desk haloed bv memories of a 
true tribune of the people. To the nation he was born here. 
It was here that his generous, genial, and manly spirit had 
full play. Here he displayed the patriotic fervor, the exquisite 
eloquence, the iridescent imagery, the peerless diction, the pene- 
trating logic, the sparkling humor, and the delightful disposi- 
tion that endeared him to the nation. He had friends every- 
where and enemies nowhere. His active and busv mind and 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 5 

his ever-ready and eloquent tongue are at rest. The marvelous 
intellect glows in another world. The whole-souled and unob- 
trusive friend of the masses has passed away. Only his memory 
remains. That memory perfumes every home in the land. 

A Democratic statesman himself, he came from a race of 
Democratic statesmen. His father, Hon. Ezekiel Taylor Cox, 
was not only a distinguished editor, but a member of the Ohio 
State Senate. His mother was a daughter of Hon. Samuel 
Sullivan, State treasurer of Ohio, and a man of exalted char- 
acter. His paternal grandfather. General James Cox, of Mon- 
mouth County, New Jersey, was not only a distinguished officer 
of the Revolution, but a warm personal friend of Thomas 
Jefferson. He was ever a welcome guest at Monticello. He 
was at one time speaker of the New Jersey legislature, and died 
while a member of the Tenth Congress. The portrait of another 
relative adorns the Speaker's lobby. It is that of John W. 
Taylor, Speaker of this House during the second session of 
the Sixteenth Congress. Mr. Taylor was the only Speaker 
ever chosen from the great State of New York. He was a 
cousin of Air. Cox's father. 

Samuel Sullivan Cox was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on 
September 30, 1824. He had twelve brothers and sisters. Eight 
grew to manhood and womanhood. Mr. Cox's father was the 
editor of the ]\Iuskingum Messenger. He established the first 
paper-mill west of the Alleghanies. For fourteen years he was 
clerk of the court of Muskingum County. Samuel S. Cox 
was preternaturally bright as a boy. He learned to read and 
write before he was five years old and early displayed a taste for 
literature. At the age of eleven he was a valuable assistant to 
his father in the county clerk's office at Zanesville. There are 
men living who saw the boy swear jurors and witnesses, issue 



6 Address of Mr. Cimimings, of New York^ on the 

writs and make up journals. He performed all the duties of an 
expert clerk before he was thirteen years old. He attended the 
university at Athens, Ohio, and reached the sophomore }'ear, 
but did not complete his course there. One of his classmates 
at Athens was General Albert B. Jenkins, a well-known Con- 
federate cavalry leader, killed in 1864. 

While a clerk in his father's office young Cox applied him- 
self to the study of the law. His memory was marvelous. It 
is said that he knew the old twenty-ninth volume of the Ohio 
Laws by heart, and that later on he could draw up any pleading 
without consulting Chitty. 

After leaving Athens he entered Brown University. This 
was in 1844. His father's means were limited. Young Sam- 
uel had hard work to pay his way. He did it by the use of the 
pen. Eli Thayer was a schoolmate at the university. Mr. Cox 
carried off the prizes in history, in poetic criticism, and in po- 
litical economy. In the last department his theme was the 
repeal of the corn laws. His treatment of it indicated his 
course in after years as an advocate of free trade. He was a 
free-trader when a majority of his countrymen thought it more 
than a defect. He graduated with high honors in 1846. It 
was at Brown University that he developed that readiness in 
debate and repartee which afterward made him so conspicuous 
on this floor. 

Upon returning to Ohio he resumed the study of the law, 
first with Judge Converse. Ex-Governor Hoadley was a stu- 
dent in the same office. Not long afterwards both these young 
men went to Cincinnati. Mr. Cox soon formed a law partner- 
ship with George L. Pugh, afterward a distinguished Senator 
from his native State. He practiced law for two years and be- 
came prominent in his profession. The thoroughness of his 



Life and Cliaractcr of Samuel S. Cox. 7 

knowledge and his readiness as a speaker gave him great 
strength before juries. 

The practice of law, however, became distasteful to him. 
His literary tastes were eternally in conflict with it. His ap- 
preciative fondness for historical works and general literature 
gave him an ardent desire to visit the Old World. The visit 
was made soon after his marriage. Mr. Cox married Miss Julia 
A. Buckingham, of Zanesville, Ohio, on October ir, 1849. Of 
all the good things he ever did, this was the best for himself 
Mrs. Cox proved a true and devoted wife. She was the pole- 
star of his existence. Rarely was she separated from him. 
She was his companion upon the burning sands of the African 
deserts and in the bleak regions of the midnight sun. She was 
with him upon the isles of the sea of Marmora and in the vast 
forests bordering Puget Sound. Beneath the blue Italian skies, 
climbing Mount Calvar}', resting amid the ruins of Karnak, en- 
joying the grandeur of the Yosemite, admiring the wonders of 
Yellowstone Park, she was ever at her husband's side. In the 
stormy scenes of life she was always his sheet-anchor. 

They remained abroad for more than a year. Upon their re- 
turn Mr. Cox published an account of their rambling under the 
title of A Buckeye Abroad. The success of this book turned 
his attention to journalism. By the advice of friends he bought 
a controlling interest in the Columbus Statesman. It was the 
Democratic organ at the capital. Mr. Cox developed sterling 
qualities as an editorial writer. He displayed great aptitude in 
treating existing issues and as an originator of strong ideas. 
He never forgot the admonition of his grandfather, Samuel Sul- 
livan. Mr. Sullivan, in his last will, charged his own and his 
children's children to remember that "their inheritance was the 
result of democratic institutions, and said that he expected his 



8 Address of Mr. Cuniiiiiiigs^ of New York, on the 

namesake and executor, vSamuel Sullivan Cox, to sustain 
those institutions in their democratic form and tenor with ballot 
and with bullet." 

/It was while he was editor of the Columbus Statesman that 
Mr. Cox wrote the article which gave him the appellation of 
"Sunset." That article was published on May 19, 1853. ^^ is 
peculiarly indicative of Mr. Cox's tastes and character. I quote 
it: 

A GREAT OLD SUNSET. 

What a stormful sunset was that of last night ! How glorious the storm 
and how splendid the setting of the sun ! We do not remember ever to 
have seen the like on our round globe. The scene opened in the west, 
with a whole horizon full of golden mipenetrating luster, which colored 
the foliage and brightened every object in its own rich dyes. The colors 
grew deeper and richer, until the golden luster was transformed into a 
storm-cloud, full of finest lightning, which leaped in dazzling zigzags all 
^ round and over the city. The wind arose with fury, the slender shrubs 
and giant trees made obeisance to its majesty. Some even snapped be- 
fore its force. The strawberry beds and grass plots "turned up their 
whites " to see Zephyrus march by. As the rain came, and the pools 
formed, and the gutters hurried away, thunder roared grandly, and the 
fire-bells caught the excitement and rung with hearty chorus. The south 
and east received the copious showers, and the west all at once bright- 
ened up in a long, polished belt of azure, worthy of a Sicilian sky. 
Presently a cloud appeared in the azure belt, in the form of a castellated 
city. It became more vivid, revealing strange forms of peerless fanes 
and alabaster temples, and glories rare and grand in this mundane sphere. 
It reminds us of Wordsworth's splendid verse in his Excursion: 

The appearance instantaneously disclosed 
Was of a mighty city, boldly say 
A wilderness of buildings, sinking far 
And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth. 
Far sinking into splendor without end! 

But the city vanished only to give place to another isle, where the most 
beautiful forms of foliage appeared, imaging a paradise in the distant and 
purified air. The sun, wearied of the elemental commotion, sank behind 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 9 

the green plains of the west. The " great eye in lieaven, " however, went 
not down without a daric brow hanging over its departing hgiit. The 
rich flush of the unearthly light had passed antl the rain had ceased; 
when the solemn church bells pealed; the laughter of children, out in the air 
and joyous after the storm, is heard with the carol of birds; while the forked 
and purple weapon of the skies still darted illumination around the Star- 
ling College, trying to rival its angles and leap into its dark windows. 
Candles are lighted. The piano strikes up. We feel that it is good to 
have a home — good to be on the earth where such revelations of beauty 
and power may be made. And as we can not refrain from reminding 
our readers of everything wonderful in our city, we have begun and ended 
our feeble etching of a sunset which comes so rarely, that its glory should 
be committed to immortal type. 

As the editor of a leading Democratic paper Mr. Cox entered 
the field of politics. It was one for which he was particularly 
adapted. Washington McLean, the owner and editor of the 
Cincinnati Enquirer, was among his earliest friends. Mr. Mc- 
Lean was chairman of the Democratic State central commit- 
tee in 1853. Anxious to be relieved of its responsibilities, he 
resigned tipon condition that Mr. Cox accept the place and 
conduct the canvass. In that year William Medill was the 
Democratic candidate for governor. His opponents were Mr. 
Barrere, a Whig, and i\Ir. Lewis, a Free-Soiler. ]\Ir. Cox threw 
himself into the campaign with all his heart and soul. Never 
were the industry and versatility of the man better displayed. 
He not only did the executive work of the committee, but he 
appeared upon the stinnp and wrote many a fiery editorial. 
The effectiveness of his work was shown by the result. Medill 
was elected governor with a majority of 11,497 over all and a 
plurality of 61,843 over the Whig candidate. 

From that time forward Mr. Cox became air active politician. 
Young, quick-witted, ready, energetic, ardent, earnest, talented, 
graceful, and accomplished, no man was more fitted to win the 



10 Address of Air. Cummings., of New York, on the 

plaudits of the people. He was the rising young statesman of 
the Buckeye State. His fame spread to Washington. He 
visited this cit}- for the first time in 1S55. In that \-ear he tells 
us that President Pierce oflTered him the post of secretary of 
legation to England. That honor was declined, Mr. Cox 
preferring the secretaryship of legation to Peru. He proceeded 
as far south as Aspinwall, when ill-health compelled him to 
return to the United States. In August he resigned. 

One year later he accepted the Democratic nomination to 
Congress from the Twelfth Ohio district. The campaign was 
a bitter one. Samuel Galloway was the Republican and Mr. 
Stanberry the American candidate. Mr. Cox was elected by a 
plurality of 355 votes. He succeeded in Congress Edson B. 
Olds, who was afterward a prisoner in Fort Lafayette. 

Samuel S. Cox entered Congress on December 7, 1857. This 
was thirty-two years ago last December. He came into this 
House one year before Judge Kelley and two years before the 
lamented Randall and our friend the venerable Charles O'Neill,* 
of Pennsylvania, by whom I am requested to say how deeply 
he regrets that he is unable to be here to-day to pay tribute to 
his old personal friend. Mr. Cox was hardly seated in the old 
historic Hall that had resounded with the eloquence of Webster, 
Clay, and Calhoun, before the Hou.se of Representatives took 
possession of this Chamber. Mr. Cox made the first speech 
ever heard in this Hall. It was his maiden speech in Congress. 
Listen to him as he describes the scene. I read from his work, 
Three Decades of Federal Legislation : 

The i6th of December, 1857, is memorable in the annals of the United 
States. Looking back to that day, the writer can see the members of the 
House of Representatives take up the line of march out of the oid 
shadowy and murmurous Chamber into the new Hall, with its ornate and 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 1 1 

gilded interior. The scene is intense in a rare dramatic quality. Around 
sit the members upon richly carved oaken chairs. Already arrayed upon 
either side are the sections in mutual animosity. The Republicans take 
the left of the Speaker, the Democrats the right. James L. Orr, of South 
Carolina, a full, roseate-faced gentleman, of large build and ringing me- 
tallic voice, is in the chair. James C. Allen, of Illinois, sits below him 
in the Clerk's seat. The Rev. Mr. Carothers offers an appropriate and 
inspiring prayer. .A. solemn hush succeeds the invocation, .\fter some 
legislative routine the members retire to the open space in the rear to 
await the drawing of seats. A page with bandaged eyes makes the award, 
and one by one the members are seated. Then by the courtesy of the 
chairman of the Printing Committee (Mr. Smith, of Tennessee), a young 
member from Ohio is allowed to take the floor. He addresses the 
Speaker with timidity and modesty amid many interruptions by Humph- 
rey Marshall, Thomas S. Bocock, Judge Hughes, George W. Jones, and 
General Quitman, each of whom bristles with points of order against the 
points of the speaker. But that young member is soon observed by a 
quiet House. Many listen to him, perhaps to judge of the acoustic 
qualities of the Hall, some because of the nature of the debate. And 
then after a few minutes all become excited. Again and again the shrill 
tones of Mr. Speaker Orr are heard above the uproar. He e.xclaims : 
"This is a motion to print extra copies of the President's message. De- 
bate on the subject is therefore in order, upon which the gentleman from. 
Ohio has the floor. " 

That gentleman is now the writer. His theme was the Lecompton 
constitution. As the questions discussed involved the great issues lead- 
ing to war or peace, his interest in the mise en scene became less. But 
his maiden speech — the maiden speech in the new Chamber — began 
under circumstances anything but composing. 

While Mr. Cox was tints astounding the House with his elo- 
quence, his old law-partner, George E. Pugh, was awakening 
the United States Senate to the gravity of the situation. The 
pillars of the Republic were being shaken. There was an om- 
inous rumbling that foreboded the great national convulsion 
that followed. 

Mr. Cox was thirty-two j^ears old when he made this speech. 



12 Address of Mr. Ciimmings^ of New York^ on the 

He began his career by antagonizing his party's administration. 
He promptly took sides in the great fight between Stephen A. 
Douglas and President Bnchanan. Throughout that contest, 
so disastrous to his countr}- and to his part}-, Mr. Cox was an 
able lieutenant of Judge Douglas. It was a terrific conflict. 
Stephen A. Douglas swung his trenchant blade in the Senate. 
He received able support in the House. There William A. 
Richardson iised the broadsword, but Cox was fulh" as effective 
with his rapier. He says that his speech was the first delivered 
against Lecompton in the lower branch of Congress. It was 
taken to Judge Douglas on the Sunday night preceding its 
deliver}- to read to him parts of it in manuscript. This speech 
drew the line clearly. Mr. Cox lost caste with the administra- 
tion. But the independence of the man asserted itself in another 
direction. Differing with President Buchanan, he after^vards 
differed with Judge Douglas on the English compromise. This 
subjected him to bitter criticism from friends of the judge. It 
was, however, an honest difference. The magnanimous Doug- 
' las recognized this, for in the campaign of i860, at an immen.se 
mass-meeting in Columbus, he advocated the re-election of Mr. 
Cox. 

Mr. Cox laid the basis of his fame in the Thirty-fifth Con- 
gress. He displayed those charming qualities in debate which 
ever afterward made him a favorite upon the floor. No one 
ever doubted the intensity- of his convictions. His arguments 
were adorned with eloquence and enlivened with wit and humor. 
Bom within the life-time of Jefferson, Jeffersonian principles 
became a part of his growth. He was a sincere Democrat, be- 
cause in his mind there was no other philosophy that could 
serve his country so well. 

He was re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress by 647 ma- 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 13 

jority over Mr. Case, the Republican candidate. That Con- 
gress met on December 6, 1859. '^^^^ great reputation won b}- 
him in preceding sessions was of service to him at the opening 
of the new Congress. General Joseph Lane, then a Delegate 
from Oregon, drew the seat at which I now stand. Mr. Cox 
had occupied it during the preceding session. When his name 
was called, late in the day. General Lane escorted him, amid 
the cheers of the House, to this desk, saying: 

You fancy this seat, sir. I have no need of it. I am a Delegate and 
you are a Member. You will survive me in the work which is here to 
be done. I go to another sphere. As soon as the vote on the admission 
of Oregon is taken I shall be its Senator. 

Throughout the war and the long period of reconstruction 
Mr. Cox occupied this seat. He changed it for a similar seat 
on the lirst aisle to the right about seven years ago. It was 
where my esteemed friend from Georgia, Judge Crisp, uow 
sits. 

Mr. Cox became a leader in the Thirty-sixth Congress. It 
was in this Congress that the collision between Messrs. Keitt 
and Grow occurred. It led to a free fight upon the floor of the 
House. Mr. Cox says that it took place near his desk, after 
midnight. He describes the scene thus: 

After nearly three decades I see, trooping down the aisles of memory, 
as then there came trooping down the aisles of the House, the belliger- 
(Cnts, with Washburn, of Illinois, and Potter, of Wisconsin, leading one 
extreme, and Barksdale and Lamar, of Mississippi, the other. Then 
came the melee, the struggle; the pale face of the Speaker calling for 
order ; the Sergeant-at-Arms rushing into the area before the Speaker's 
desk with the mace as his symbol of authority. Its silver eagle moves 
up and down on the wave of passion and conflict. Then there is a dead 
hush of the hot heart and the glare of defiance across the Hall. As this 
scene is revivified, looking at it through the red storm of the war, there 
is epitomized all that has made that war bloody and desperate. 



14 Address of Mr. Cummings^ of New York., on the 

While in the Thirty-sixth Congress Mr. Cox voted for the 
homestead bill, which was vetoed by President Buchanan. 

In i860 he was once more a candidate for re-election from the 
Columbus district. Samuel Galloway was again his opponent. 
Cox was elected by 8S3 majority. 

The capture of Fort Sumter and ensuing hostilities made an 
extra session necessary. The Thirty-seventh Congress met on 
July 4, 1861. Mr. Cox says that he went to that session with a 
fear and trembling beyond all other public experiences. All 
his energies, however, were bent upon sustaining the consti- 
tuted authorities. At the next Congress he was nominated for 
Speaker by his party against Mr. Colfax. Stephen A. Douglas 
died in May preceding the opening of the session of the Thirty- 
seventh Congress. Mr. Cox delivered his eulogy in the House. 
The tribute was affectingly eloquent — so eloquent that it brought 
tears to the eyes of those who heard it. 

While a member of this Congress he tells us that he nomi- 
nated William Tecumseh Sherman to President Lincoln as the 
first choice of Ohio for a brigadier-general. In commenting 
upon it afterwards Mr. Lincoln happily said that Mr. Cox's 
choice ' ' manifested intuitive perception and moral greatness. ' ' 

In that Congress Mr. Cox strenuously opposed the declara- 
tion of martial law in the North. The Government asserted 
that it was a necessity for the successful prosecution of the war. 
Cox excoriated Secretary Stanton for his order of August 8, 
1862. Not only was the right of habeas corpus suspended in 
every Northern State, but trial by jury was abolished by the 
edict of an American Cabinet minister. Mr. Cox's scathing de- 
nunciation of Stanton in the House is a master-piece of sarcasm. 

About this time Col. Michael Corcoran and two other Fed- 
eral officers of equal rank, captured at Bull Run, were held as 



Life and Character ofSatmicl S. Cox. 15 

liostaees to be hanffed in case Confederate seamen were exe- 
cuted as pirates. Through the influence of Mr. Cox a resoh:- 
tion providing for an exchange of prisoners was passed. Presi- 
dent lyincohi, however, had previously exchanged the so-called 
pirates as prisoners of war. It was done at Mr. Cox\s solici- 
tation. 

r^lr. Cox was among the foremost in the eflFort to abolish pri- 
vateering under the declaration of Paris. His efforts were 
checked by the action of Great Britain, who refused to give her 
assent after the Ijeginning of hostilities in 1861. 

Meantime the Columbus district had been gerrymandered. 
In the new district Samuel Shellabarger entered the lists against 
the sturdy young Democrat, but Mr. Cox carried it as a war 
Democrat by 272 majority. 

In the following year Clement L. Vallandigham was arrested 
by General Bumside and sent without the lines. Cox was a 
warm personal friend of Mr. Vallandigham, who was arrested 
on account of words which it was alleged he used in a speech. 
But the words were spoken by Mr. Cox, and not by Mr. Val- 
landigham. Vlx. Cox testified so on oath, and Mr. Vallan- 
digham fortified his statement. 

The Thirty-eighth Congress met on December 5, 1863. It 
was the Congress that submitted the Thirteenth Amendment to 
the States. This amendment abolished slaver}-. Singular as 
it may seem, ]\Ir. Cox, while favoring it, did not vote for it. 
He feared that its passage at that juncture would interfere with 
attempts at peace negotiations. His statement is singularly in- 
teresting. On the day succeeding the action of the House Mr. 
Lincoln, Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, of the Con- 
federacy, and others met at Hampton Roads. The negotiations 
were the direct result of Mr. Cox's eflTorts. He was at that 



16 Address of Mr. Cuvimiiigs, of Nciv York, on the 

time a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. John T. 
Stuart, of Springfield, 111., was also a member of that commit- 
tee. Mr. Stuart was a close friend and had been a law partner 
of President lyincoln. He was a Democrat and a conservative 
Unionist. It occurred to Mr. Cox, during the holidays of 1864, 
when the coil was being tightened around the Confederacj', 
that the olive branch might be tendered to the South under 
honorable conditions, with a prospect of acceptance. In Sep- 
tember previous peace resolutions had been introduced into the 
senate of Virginia, and similar resolutions were offered in the 
legislatures of Georgia and North Carolina. ]\Ir. Cox sug- 
gested to Mr. Stuart that they should call upon the President 
and urge him to receive or make some tender to the Confederate 
authorities. The President listened courteously to their repre- 
sentations. He frankly admitted that he was anxious to secure 
Democratic votes and aid to amend the Constitution so as to 
abolish slavery. Mr. Cox promised his help provided a sincere 
effort was made for peace within the Union. If that failed he 
would not only help the amendment but assist in prosecuting 
the war with renewed vigor. 

The new year had hardly opened before Francis P. Blair, sr., 
went to Richmond on a peace mission. On the day before his 
arrival there rumors of his mission reached Congress. It led 
to a fierce debate upon this floor. James Brooks, of New York, 
favored an armistice and Thaddeus Stevens attacked the Presi- 
dent's course of action. Cox stood, like Washington at Prince- 
ton, between two fires. He carried himself magnificently and 
won the day. Blair's mission led to the Hampton Roads con- 
ference, and that conference was held on the da}' after the pas- 
sage by the House of the constitutional amendment abolishing 
slavery. 



Life and Charade}' of Samuel S. Cox. 17 

Four days afterward Mr. Cox offered a resolution in this 
Chamber reciting the gratitude of the nation to the President 
for endeavoring, with a view to negotiations for peace and the 
restoration of the Union, to ascertain the disposition of the in- 
surgents. It was carried — 105 to 31. 

The results of the conference thus suggested by Mr. Cox 
were vital. Its failure gave fresh impulse to the passage of the 
bill raising $600,000,000 for the prosecution of the war. Within 
six weeks General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Another 
result running to extremes was a measure which Mr. Cox 
defeated, confiscating the fee-simple of real property owned by 
Confederates beyond the natural lives of the owners. This bill 
was defeated by only i majority. 

Long before this Mr. Cox had won the friendshijj of Secre- 
tary Seward. In 1861, as a member of the Committee on For- 
eign Affairs, he aided Mr. Seward in his efforts to settle the 
Trent imbroglio and the surrender of Mason and Slidell. In 
the discussion that ensued in the House Mr. Cox proved him- 
self a true American. He said: 

We are, sir, in this country, too sensitive to foreign opinion. Mr. Sew- 
ard said well when he told Mr. Dayton, our minister to France, that it 
was no business of our ambassadors to overhear what a foreign press said 
about us. Our duty was to maintain our Union in its integrity and our 
position as a leading power among the nations of mankind, regardless of 
the derision and hostility of kings and aristocrats abroad. 

Mr. Cox called Thaddeus Stevens the dictator of the Thirty- 
eighth Congress. Stevens maititained the right to hold the 
insurgent States as conquered territory and to give homesteads 
from them to the emancipated slaves. Mr. Cox strenuously 
protested. Stevens insisted that the right to govern the insur- 
gent States as Territories was necessary. Mr. Cox fought him 
H. Mis. 243 2 



18 Address of Mr. Ciiuniiiiigs^ of Nezv York., on tlie 

at every point. The fight lasted three months. At the end of 
that time Mr. Cox's term expired. The measure for the crea- 
tion of the Freedman's Bureau was passed on the day before the 
expiration of his term. In commenting upon these events 
afterward Mr. Cox tersely said that Stevens had Pluto's iron 
countenance, but he could unbend and be kindly. 

The elections for the Thirty-ninth Congress occurred in the 
fall of 1864. Samuel Shellabarger again entered the field. 
This time he was successful. He carried the district by the 
aid of the army vote. His majority was 3,169. Discouraged, 
but not disheartened, Mr. Cox removed to New York, where 
he devoted himself to the practice of his profession. He was 
not a member of the memorable Thirty-ninth and Fortieth 
Congresses. In the interval he wrote, his book, Eight Years in 
Congress. 

The era of reconstruction came on. Durnig his absence the 
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were passed ; the extraor- 
dinary scenes attending the impeachment of President John- 
son occurred. Although absent from the House, Mr. Cox was 
not inactive. He was instrumental in saving the President. 
While in New York he says he received a telegram asking him 
to come to Washington. The vote of General John B. Hen- 
derson, then a Republican vSenator from Missouri, was neces- 
sary to save the President from being removed. In his account, 
Mr. Cox says that he found Senator Henderson's sense of jus- 
tice affronted by the instructions of a mass-meeting held in 
St. Louis to vote "guilty." The Senator requested Mr. 
Cox to pen a telegram to be sent to the president and officers 
of that meeting. The telegram read substantially: "I am a 
judge in the impeachment case. You have no right to instruct 
me in such affairs. As I am an honest man I will obey my 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox, 19 

conscience, and not your will. I will vote 'not guilty.'" 
And he did so vote. Mr. Cox says that he took a copy of that 
telegram to the White House at midnight. He found the 
President gloomy. His fate depended upon one vote — nay, 
upon this one Missouri vote. The telegram was read to him. 
To use the words of Mr. Cox, "A festivity was improvised on 
the good news. The morning dawned with a roseate hue for 
all interested in the righteousness of the President's acquittal." 

Mr. Cox was returned to Congress from the Sixth district of 
New York in 1868. His opponent was George Starr, an ex- 
'tremely popular Republican. Cox's majority was 2,680. The 
first session of that Congress began on March 4, 1869, and ad- 
journed on April 23 following. 

An amnesty bill was among the first that Mr. Cox introduced. 
He said that his object was to mitigate, in so far as it could be 
done, the proscriptive tendency which kept our people sepa- 
rated by a great chasm. ' ' Agree with thine enemy quickly ' ' 
was his motto. His bill came within two votes of passing the 
House of Representatives, although it required a two-thirds 
vote under the fourteenth amendment. It was after this that 
General Benjamin F. Butler introduced his amnesty bill. Cox 
characterized it from this seat as a bill for pains and penalties, 
with a meager element of mercy. He termed it punitory par- 
don. He pleaded for mercy on the old and fraternal plan and 
against eternizing proscription. He opposed Butler's bill 
fiercely. In this Congress and succeeding Congresses he sought 
the passage of a general amnesty bill. It was in advocating 
this measure that he crossed swords with James G. Blaine in 
debate. Mr. Cox asserts that Mr. Blaine, while Speaker, au- 
thorized the Committee on Rules, of which Mr. Cox was a 
member, to report a bill of general amnesty. He adds that 



20 Address of Mr. Cummings, of New York, on the 

Mr. Blaiue afterwards precipitately retreated from the high 
ground which he then occupied. However this may lae, it is 
certain that whatever good in the way of amnesty has been ac- 
complished is largely due to the untiring efforts of Mr. Cox. 

In 1870 Mr. Cox was re-elected to Congress from the Sixth 
New York district. His antagonist was Horace Greeley. Cox's 
majority was 1,025. Two years afterward Mr. Greeley was a 
candidate for the Presidency and Mr. Cox gave him a generous 
support. 

The Forty-second Congress met on March 4, 1871. It was in 
this Congress that the first colored Senator appeared in the per- 
son of Mr. Revels, of Mississippi. In this session the bill was 
passed enforcing the fourteenth amendment. Mr. Cox at this 
time began his fight against the test-oath system. He after- 
ward introduced a bill to abolish the whole test system, not 
only in its application to jurors, but to all offices, including 
that of Congressman. It gave place to a partial measure, 
which he describes as intended to melt down somewhat the 
iron-clad oath. The modification extended only to the matter 
of qualifying for office. It did not apply to the jury test. The 
modified oath is the oath taken by members of Congress to-dav 
when sworn in. Mr. Cox's efforts to secure the repeal of the 
iron-clad oath and the jury-test oath were successful nearly two 
decades after the war was over. It was done by the passage of 
a general bill, modified by the Senate. It was signed by Presi- 
ident Arthur on May 13, 1884. 

The members of the Forty-third Congress were elected in 
New York under a new apportionment. It was the year in 
which Horace Greele)- ran for President. Mr. Cox was candi- 
date for Congressman at large upon the State ticket. He was 
defeated b)- Lyman Tremain by 37,699 majority. Not long 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 21 

afterwards James Brooks, who represented the new Sixth dis- 
trict of New York, died. Mr. Cox was elected to fill the 
vacancy. His opponent was Julius Wadsworth. Cox's plurality 
was 6,932. During this Congress an additional civil rights bill 
was passed. Mr. Cox took an active part in all the debates. 

He was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress from the Sixth 
district by 10,334 majority. This Congress met in December, 
1875. It was a Congress of luminous intellects. Among its 
members were Samuel J. Randall, Nathaniel P. Banks, Joseph 
C. S. Blackburn, James G. Blaine, Joseph G. Cannon, James 
H. Blount, William P. Frye, James A. Garfield, Abram S. 
Hewitt, George F. Hoar, William S. Holman, Benjamin Hill, 
Frank Hurd, John A. Kasson, William D. Kelley, Proctor 
Knott, L. Q. C. Lamar, George W. McCrary, Roger O. Mills, 
William R. Morrison, Thomas C. Piatt, John H. Reagan, 
James W. Throckmorton,. Jeremiah M. Rusk, William M. 
Springer, J. Randolph Tucker, Henry Watterson, William A. 
Wheeler, James F. Wilson, and Fernando Wood. Samuel S. 
Cox shone in this galaxy like a star of the first magnitude. 

Michael C. Kerr was elected Speaker. Mr. Kerr died in 
August following, while Mr. Cox was oflSciating as Speaker 
pro Icvipore. Political necessities called him to the Democratic 
national convention at St. Louis. He went unwillingly, and 
appeared in the ranks of those opposed to the nomination of Mr. 
Tilden. He always felt that he lost the Speakership by so 
doing. 

His eulogy upon Mr. Douglas was matched by his eulogy 
upon Speaker Kerr. After its delivery Mr. Cox tells us that 
Alexander H. Stephens sent for him. Mr. Stephens was l\-ing 
ill at his room in the National Hotel, expecting to die. As Mr. 
Cox entered the room he said : "I have heard read your eulogy 



22 Address of Mr. Ciitumings, of New York, on tlic 

upon Speaker Kerr, and lla^•e sent for you to make a request — a 
last request. Will you promise to deliver my eulogj- when I am 
gone ? ' " 

Mr. Cox promptly replied: " I would like you to promise to 
make my eulog}'. You will be the sur\-ivor.'" 

The grand old Georgian got well, but he passed into the land 
of shadows long before his genial friend. 

In the stormy sessions attending the birth and life of the 
Electoral Commission, Mr. Cox bore a conspicuous part. He 
was ever in the thickest of the fight. At one time he yielded 
ten minutes to Col. Henry Watterson. In his Three Decades 
Mr. Cox says that the gallant Kentuckian was known to be an 
intimate friend of Mr. Tildeu. In melancholy accents he 
chanted with vaticinal periods those sad da^-s and the coming 
of the day of reckoning: 

" Dies ine, dies ilia." 

It was at this time that Mr. Cox uttered his famous sentence: 
* ' Peril gives the lessons of years in a day. ' ' It was the core of 
an argument rarely matched for logic and eloquence. 

But these were not the only great measures in which his 
influence was felt. He advocated the resumption of specie 
payments, the regulation of the paper currency, and the modi- 
fication of the tarifi" and internal-revenue laws. 

Mr. Cox was almost unanimously re-elected to the Forty- 
fifth Congress. There were only 41 votes against him. These 
votes were cast for Col. A. J. H. Duganne, a well-known poet. 
It was in this Congress that the silver dollar was restored to its 
legal character. The bill pro\'iding for the Tenth Census was 
also passed. 

He took front rank in the effort to relieve the strain upon the 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 23 

elective franchise by the bayonet power in the South and Fed- 
eral supervisors in the North. He went so far in the contest 
as to aid in cutting off the supplies of the Army, thus necessi- 
tatinor an extra session. He began this work in 1877. It was 



f^^ 



finished six years afterward. 

He was re-elected to the Forty-sixth Congress by 4,581 
plurality. His plurality in the Forty-seventh Congress was 
increased to 9,863. In these Congresses, besides his work on 
the census, he devoted himself to the Life-Sa\ang Service, and 
a:ppeared upon the skirmish line in the fight for tariff reform. 

James A. Garfield was elected President in 1880. Soon 
after his inauguration in 1881 Mr. Cox made another voyage 
to Europe. He says that he was near Tarsus, where Paul was 
born, when he heard of the death of President Garfield. It was 
in the Forty-seventh Congress that Mr. Cox gave his aid to the 
civil-service reform bill. He says that the assassination of 
General Garfield gave impulse to the bill and secured its pas- 
sage. 

IVIr. Cox's plurality in the election for members of the Forty- 
eighth Congress was 11,317. It was in this Congress that he 
gave his support to the foreign contract labor bill. 

Meantime the New York districts were again re-apportioned. 
He was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress from the Eighth 
district by 6,511 plurality. He resigned his seat soon after 
President Cleveland's inauguration and accepted the mission 
to Turkey. After remaining there for a year or more he came 
back to New York, and was elected to fill the vacancy left in 
the Ninth district by the resignation of Hon. Joseph Pulitzer, 
editor of the World. 

So far as I have been able to ascertain, Mr. Cox is the only 
man who has ever been twice elected to the same Congress and 



24 Address of Mr. Ciiimiiijigs, of A"ew York^ on the 

who has been first defeated and then successful in an effort to 
secure a seat in one and the same Congress. 

The later work of Mr. Cox in the House is still fresh in the 
public mind. The Tenth Census is a monument to his perse- 
verance and industry. The Life-Saving Service is a monument 
to his sympathy and humanity. His bill for the relief of the 
letter-carriers is a monument to his sense of justice to the toil- 
ing employes of the Government. 

He has but just left us. We almost expect him back. 

Mr. Speaker, overcome by his feelings on a similar occasion, 
Burke exclaimed, in melancholy accents, "What shadows we 
are and what shadows we pursue." He could not have meant 
by this to fly in the face of the enchanting theme of existence 
which in his braver moments he illustrated with consummate 
grandeur. Looking at the past and concentrating all the ener- 
gies of my soul, I would with deference supplant this saying 
of the great orator with these words: " How real is life and in 
what realities it may eventuate." 

Human achievements that essentially affect mankind often 
develop with full force after the life that accomplished them. 
The living Moses gave laws to tribes that were still wandering. 
When dead this wandering shadow, as Burke might have called 
him, this waif from the Nile whose death no eye witnessed and 
whose burial-place is unknown, fashioned laws for fixed and 
mighty empires. The essential agent in this manifest influence 
is divine speech. It is more potent than tables of stone. 
Among the busy tongues of this world are some that do not 
babble. The mysterious graphophone of the dead, of more 
than mortal construction, rejects what is idle; but the words . 
of the wise and the eloquent endure. Like solar rays, they 
expand and enlighten as they travel. 



Life and Charactev of Samuel S. Cox. 25 

When Cicero thundered against the conspirators it was in a 
narrow forum and to a restricted audience. Now his forum is 
the world and mankind listen to him. 

The daggers of the assassins put a tongue in every wound 
of Caesar. The battle of Senlac comes down to us like a clar- 
ion call for England's unity. Our civil war, like a thundering 
trumpet, proclaims the all-conquering tenacity of our own. 

Men, things, and events make up this wonderful continuity 
of confluent action and occurrence; yet each speaks for itself 
There is no confusion of tongues. 

When Bunker Hill monument was complete, Webster was 
orator for the day. But an orator remained, towering, silent, 
impressive. It grows strenuous as it imperceptibly crumbles. 
When it falls it will add its own vicissitudes to its tremendous 
discourse. So did the temple at Ephesus; so does the obelisk 
transplanted to our shores. 

The retreat of the Ten Thousand and the revolution in Bra- 
zil are both before us. The world knows most of that which it 
has studied longest. 

Events that flj- b)' us with baffling rapidity seem to pause and 
come back for inspection. Students are still delying in the 
debris of the French upheaval of a century ago. The tragic 
coming of Jeptha's daughter and the riotous feast of Belshaz- 
zar are yet vivid. 

These various tissues in the retrospect accumulate and assort 
in amazing volume and with wonderful distinctness. 

"Alas! It came with a lass and it will go with a lass," ex- 
claimed Scotland's monarch when told that Mary Stuart was 
born. His scepter passed to the incomparable queen. Though 
of one blood and in one station, the great drama when she 
appeared was intensified by her divergent acting. We con- 



26 Address of Mr. CnmmtJigs^ of Neiv York^ on the 

template the past in epochs, its actors in groups, yet each in 
his part. 

So among his mighty compeers, desHng with mighty events, 
do we and shall future generations contemplate Cox in his 
chosen r61e. Difficult and arduous indeed were its require- 
ments, but he met them with an undaunted courage and an 
unflagging zeal. 

He aided in reconciling the sections, he shielded the Israelite 
from political demarkation, he shortened the tramp of the 
weary postman, he made the angry waves jubilant with the 
song of rescue. He was a star in our political galaxy from 
which men take observations. Whatever weakness he had 
came not from the poverty, but from the plenitude of his 
power. 

His name appears upon almost every page of our legislative 
annals for more than a quarter of a century. His handiwork 
is seen in nearly every apartment of our civil structure. This 
House was his workshop. The Constitution was his guide. 
. He asked for no furlough, he accepted no leave of absence. 
In the most blinding times he stood for his whole country with 
cheerful spirit and unshaken constancy. When occasion de- 
manded he buried his political animosities in his patriotism. 
He believed in universal liberty, free labor, free trade, free com- 
petition, free opportunity, and no favors. Battling for this 
universal emancipation he died. He lives; he lives in his 
work. He will return and speak to us again and again and 
again, whenever humanity wants a friend or liberty needs a 
defender. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 27 



ADDRESS OF MR. HOLMAN, OF INDIANA. 

Mr. Speaker: The plaintive cry of the Hebrew king when 
the chiefs of his people were stricken down, ' ' How are the 
mighty fallen!" expresses the sadness of this hour. "How are 
the mighty fallen!" Nine distinguished citizens, chosen by 
the people to represent them in this Congress, have finished 
their course and passed into the other world; three of them, 
S.-VMUEL S. Cox, William D. Kelley, and Samuel J. Randall 
(the last of whom but a few hours ago we bore away with heavy 
hearts to the place of his final rest), the foremost members of 
this House by reason of their long membership in Congress, 
their commanding abilities, and the valuable services they had 
rendered to their country. 

All these, as it were but yesterday, were in this Hall, in the 
full tide of its great interests, engaged in the noble rivalry of 
who should best promote the happiness of our people. Now, 
their work completed, they sleep in the sacred silence of death. _ 

I can hardly realize that the House of Representatives of the 
American Congress is at this hour pajdng its last tribute of 
honor to the memory of Samuel S. Cox, closing the record of 
a career so illustrious. 

It is sad to think that a life so good and beneficent, so bright 
and cheerful, diflTusing in its pathway the rays of perennial sun- 
shine, the ver}' spirit of kindly sympathy and gladness, should 
ever close. 

There is so much of the "true, the beautiful, and the good" 
in the life of S.A.MUEL S. Cox, his record in public affairs so 
ereat, his attainments in scholarship and his literars' labors so 
conspicuotis, so charming the personal qualities that adorned 



28 Address of Mr. Hoi man ^ of Indiana^ on the 

his life, that only the patient historian can do justice to his 
memon- and express the value of his sen-ices to his country. 

Mr. Cox first entered this Hall as a Representative in Con- 
gress on the 7th day of December, 1857. He entered Congress 
an accomplished scholar, well informed in public affairs, in the 
\ns:or of earlv manhood. Slavers- was the livin? issue. The 
admission of Kansas into the Union under the Lecompton con- 
stitution, a pro-slaver].- instrument, was the issue of the hour. 
At the opening of that Congress the policy of the Administra- 
tion to bring Kansas into the Union under that constitution 
was announced. The instrument had not been submitted to 
the people for approval, but it was well known that the greater 
number were intensely hostile to admission into the Union 
under that instrumenL 

The message of the President had been read in both Houses 
of Congress, and on the i6th of December, 1857, nine days after 
Mr. Cox had taken his seat in the House, he obtained the floor 
on a motion to print extra copies of the message. Points of 
order were raised, and a fierce parliamenta^^- struggle to prevent 
the debate arose, but Mr. Orr, of South Carolina, Speaker of 
the House, firmly held that the young gentleman from Ohio 
was entitled to discuss the admission of Kansas under the Le- . 
compton constitution, as it was involved in the President's mes- 
sage. Mr. Cox denounced in words of burning eloquence the 
Lecompton constitution as not expressing the will of the people. 
As an earnest disciple of Jefferson, as a Democrat from his youth 
up, he demanded for the people of Kansas and all other people 
the absolute right to form and control their local government 

From that hour Mr. Cox became well known to the Ameri- 
can people. It was one of the ablest and, under all the circum- 
stances, the most coxirageous speech ever delivered in Congress. 



Life and Character of Saimtel S. Cox. 29 

He knew very well that the speech would place him in an- 
tagonism to the Administration and many of his political 
friends, but he did not hesitate; the Administration was tem- 
porary, the right of the people to self-government was eternal. 
This speech opened up one of the greatest debates that ever oc- 
curred in Congress. 

The result is well known. The constitution was referred, in 
an indirect form, to the people of Kansas, was promptly re- 
jected by them, and Mr. Cox had the pleasure at a later day to 
vote for the admission of that Territory into the Union under a 
free-State constitution adopted by the people. 

To Mr. Cox, in the House, and his great associate and friend, 
Stephen A. Douglas, in the Senate, belongs in a large degree 
the honor of saving the party of which Thomas Jefferson was 
the founder from the unspeakable dishonor of bringing into this 
great Union of States a people under a constitution to which 
they were unalterably opposed. 

It is an interesting incident that while the first efforts of Mr. 
Cox in Congress were in behalf of the rights of the people of a 
Territory to enter the Union under a constitution ratified by 
themselves, his last labors in Congress were in behalf of the ad- 
mission into the Union of the Territories of the extreme North- 
west, and the cordial greetings he received from multitudes of 
people as he passed during the last summer through those great 
political communities — Washington, Montana, and the two Da- 
kotas — on the very eve of their admission into the Union, attest 
their high appreciation of his ser\aces. 

I first met Mr. Cox when the Thirty-sixth Congress met. I 
was in cordial sympath\- with him in the war he waged on the 
Lecompton constitution, and came into Congress on that 
issue. 



30 Address of Mr. Holman^ of Indiana^ on the 

We became friends at once. It seemed to me that I had 
always known him. For a long time our seats were close to- 
gether; later on we were farther apart, especially when, in re- 
cent years, the House, in consideration of his long and distin- 
guished services, by unanimous consent permitted him to select 
his own seat, while I stood the chances of fortime. And it is 
now and must always remain a precious memory to me that for 
many years and up to the close of the last Congress, when Con- 
gress was in session, if I had not called at his seat when the 
session began he would come over to mine with a cordial greet- 
ing. He always came as a golden beam of sunlight, with some 
charming word, some glad expression of playful fancy, that 
made the labor of the day more cheerful. 

When the Thirty-sixth Congress adjourned, on the 4th day of ■ 
March, 1861, Mr. Cox and I started homeward. We were de- 
tained a day at Wheeling, Va. We spent the day together, 
talking over the impending conflict. We both knew, as all 
men did, that war was inevitable. What position we should 
take as Democrats in Congress in relation to the coming war, 
when it came, was considered from every stand-point. There 
was no hesitation on the part of either of us. The Union must 
be maintained at every hazard. No vicissitude of fortune in 
the conflict of arms should justify ever the consideration of the 
question of the dissolution of the Union. The administration 
of President Lincoln in every measure deemed necessary or 
proper to uphold the Federal authority in all the States of the 
Union should be cordially sustained. The records of Congress 
during the war attest how faithfully Mr. Cox adhered to that 
determination. 

The great question which underlay the fierce conflict between 
the North and South — slavery — was of absorbing interest in 



Life and Cliaracter of Samuel S. Cox. '-'A 

the minds of members of the Senate and House from the begin- 
ning of the war. Mr. Cox was opposed to all forms of slavery, 
but, as a disciple of Washington and Jefferson, he stood by the 
Constitution of the United States with unfaltering fidelity; he 
could not tolerate the thought that any State of the Union or 
combination of States should interfere with the domestic affairs 
of any other State. In common with his political friends he 
would not admit that the war had broken this Union, but 
claimed that it had only for the time suspended the relation of 
the States in rebellion to the Union, and that any great change 
in the Federal Constitution, adopted when, by reason of war, 
ten States were imrepresented in Congress, might be fatal to 
the future stability of the Government. 

But he abhorred every form of human oppression. In his 
early manhood, soon after his marriage with the accomplished 
lady who became his constant companion through life, he vis- 
ited Europe, and soon afterwards published one of the most 
charming books of travel ever written. He and his young 
wife were fascinated with Rome. In that book of travel, 
bearing the expressive title, A Buckeye Abroad, Mr. Cox relates 
the visit of himself and wife to St. Peter's when the then 
reigning Pontiff appeared on the scene. After describing the 
grandeur of this famous temple of religion and the great audi- 
ence present, he said: 

Soon there arises in this chamber of theatrical glitter a plain, unques- 
tioned African, and he utters the sermon in facile latinity with graceful 
manner. His dark hands gestured harmoniously with the rounded pe- 
riods, and his swart visage beamed with a high order of intelligence. He 
was an Abyssinian. H'hat a commentary was here upon our American 
prejudices. The head of the great Catholic Church, surrounded by the 
ripest scholars of the age, listening to the eloquence of the despised negro, 
and thereby illustrating to the world the common bond of brotherhood 
which binds the human race. 



32 Address of Mr. Holmaii, of Indiana, on the 

The manly sentiment thus expressed in the early life of Mr. 
Cox was the key to his real sentiment on the question of slavery 
and the equality and brotherhood of men. It was to him an in- 
born sentiment. This passage was time and time again thrown 
at him with sharp criticisms of consistency during the fierce 
encounters in this Hall which preceded the abolition of slavery, 
which he always parried with consummate skill, for Mr. Cox 
never permitted an adversary to boast of a victory. Yet in 
fact that passage expressed the real sentiment of Samuel S. 
Cox through life. No matter how sharply, in the heat of 
debate, he resented the taunt of entertaining the sentiments of 
abolitionism in his early life, I always felt that Mr. Cox would 
not under any conditions have modified the sentiment he then 
expressed. 

Mr. Cox engaged in the discussion of every great question 
that has arisen in Congress during the last thirty-three years 
(except during the short intervals of his absence from the 
House), but he has been in a remarkable degree the champion 
of the humane and beneficent measures which have from time 
to time commanded the attention of Congress. 

During the late war, antagonizing his friend Mr. Stanton, 
Secretary of War, he urged with such determination and ear- 
nestness that the law of civilized nations should be recognized 
in the conflict between the Union and Confederate forces, that 
a cartel for the exchange of prisoners should be agreed upon, so 
that the thousands of men in the North and the South held as 
prisoners of war might be relieved from their wretched and 
death-dooming confinement, as to secure at least partially that 
humane result. He stirred up by his appeal in Congress the 
heart of America, as well as of all enlightened nations, against 
the barbarism of a European power towards the Hebrews. He 



Lift- and Characfcr of Samuel S. Cox. 33 

almost forced Congress to recognize the duty of this Republic 
to protect the remnants of the Indian tribes against the ungodly 
cupidity of the white race in defiance of national honor. 

The life-saving system, in its present efficient form, owes its 
existence to his labors. The present admirable state of the law 
in relation to letter-carriers in our cities is the result of his 
earnest efforts. He was the champion of the humane provis- 
ions that limit the hours of labor in Government employment. 

In this field of legislation, that takes into account the duties 
of Government to succor and protect the oppressed, to restrain 
the avarice of the powerful, to raise up the downtrodden, and 
to give to labor encouragement and hope, Mr. Cox has been 
without a peer in Congress in this generation or perhaps any 
other in our history. 

In literature he achieved more than any other American 
statesman has ever done. His first volume of travels published 
thirty-eight years ago, and his last published but recently, with 
works of great merit intervening, all bright and sparkling rep- 
resentations of life, will be always prized in every country 
where the English language is spoken. 

In the House of Representatives Mr. Cox was always a re- 
markable character. No man in our period has equaled him in 
readiness for any question that might arise. He was a man of 
the most precise method and order. His desk in the House 
was so methodically arranged that even in the heat of an unex- 
pected debate he could lay his hand at once on any paper whicli 
had been carefully laid aside for an emergency. Swift as a 
dash of lightning the clipping from a newspaper, or a public 
document, or a carefully preserved letter would come forth to 
confound the incautious adversary. He was the most ready 
and brilliant speaker I have ever heard. He had at his com- 
H. Mis. 243 3 



34 Address of Mr. Holman^ of Indiana^ on the 

mand the learning and current histor}' of all countries. The 
driest subject glowed and sparkled under the magic of his elo- 
quence. He never rose in the House to speak without arresting 
at once the attention of every member and retaining it to the 
last. There was a genial, kindly tone and spirit in his speeches 
that disarmed resentment and commanded admiration. 

Certainly not in our period, and I doubt whether in any other, 
unless it was when Henry Clay in the old Hall used to electrify 
Congress, has an intellect so bright and highly cultivated par- 
ticipated in the affairs of this House. In those sudden emergen- 
cies which so often have arisen in this Hall, especially in times 
of public disorder in former years, when his party was fiercely 
assailed by the powerful majority, the eyes of his political asso- 
ciates always turned to Mr. Cox as the one of all their numbers 
best prepared to repel the assault. 

My sympathies were of course always with him, yet I venture 
to assert that in all the intellectual conflicts in which he was 
engaged in his long service here no opponent ever claimed a 
clear victory and his political friends never hesitated to claim 
the unqualified advantage of the champion of their cause. Mr. 
Cox was intensely sensitive as to any matter that touched his 
personal honor in the least degree or questioned his fairness. 
Generally so forbearing and courteous in debate, if any unkind 
personal allusion was made to himself his fiery nature for the 
moment obtained the mastery, and the retort came prompt, 
keen, and incisive. And yet he was a man of the most kindly 
and forgiving temper. After such an encounter Mr. Cox's 
feelings were in a state of tumult. He could not bear estrange- 
ment from his associates, he could not harbor resentment, and 
in a few days after such a contest it was a joy to his friends to 
see pleasant relations restored. I have more tban once recalled 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 35 

to memor}', when this kindly and forgiving spirit was displayed 
in this Hall, the fragment of a prose poem I read in my boyhood; 
I do not know who was its author: 

How beautifully falls from human lips 

The blessed word, Forgive. Forgiveness! 

'Tis an attribute of God himself, the sound that openeth heaven, 

Restores once more fair Eden's faded bloom, 

And flings Hope's golden halo o'er the waste of life. 

Thrice blessed he whose heart has been so schooled 

In the sweet lessons of humility that he 

Can give it utterance. It imparts 

Celestial grandeur to the human soul, 

And maketh man an angel. 

Mr. Cox was an inexhaustible reader. Like Garfield, he 
literally devoured a book and made its treasures his own. 

The books he most highly prized were those which sympa- 
thized with the human race in all its struggles for a higher and 
a better life. 

The writers whom I have most frequently heard him mention 
or quote are Plato and Tacitus, Fenelon, St. Pierre, and Victor 
Hugo, the Spaniard Cervantes, Jeremy Bentham, Sir Thomas 
More, and George Bancroft, the great historian of our country. 

He had traveled with his devoted wife, the companion of his 
studies and literary pursuits, into almost everj- quarter of the 
globe, from the Polar Seas to the golden sands of the Orient. 
He made almost unknown islands famous by the graphic touch 
of his pen. 

It is said, in one of those grand old legends of the Hebrews 
which the Talmud has brovight down to the present age, that 
at the moment of the death of a good man there gather around 
him his deeds of charity and kindness transformed into minis- 
tering angels and the spirits of those departed who have been 
benefited and comforted by his life, and they bear aloft, on 



36 Address of Mr. Holuian^ of Indiana, on tlic 

luminous wings, the freed spirit upward to the very portals of 
the city immortal. It is to me a consoling thought that, when 
the eyes of my friend were closing on this world and those of 
his enfranchised spirit were catching the first gleam of the light 
of the infinite, the deeds of a good and compassionate life trans- 
formed into ministering angels and spirits of the great multitude 
whose sorrows and sufferings he had sought to soothe and alle- 
viate — prisoners of war, for whom he obtained humane treat- 
ment and honorable cartels of exchange and liberty; the swarthy 
Indian, in whose behalf his voice had been so often raised in 
this Hall against the rapacity of the white race; the Hebrew 
sorely oppressed on the Danube, in whose behalf his eloquence 
had awakened the conscience of the world; the ever-loyal sons 
of Ireland, for whose right to self-government he had uttered 
words of impassioned eloquence as lofty and inspiring as those 
of the great orators of the race; those who with weary feet tread 
the streets and by-ways of cities, carrying everywhere news of 
the current hour and to every home missives of duty and affec- 
tion, for whom he obtained just recognition of law; the mari- 
ners and voyagers on the pathless billows of the great deep, 
rescued from the jaws of death through the humane laws he 
inspired — a shadowy multitude, a cloud of witnesses of a good 
life, bore up his enfranchised spirit and filled the pathway 
of light with the music of the sweetest anthem ever uttered, 
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 

There have been men who have said that, while material 
nature moves on in countless forms through all eternity, the 
human soul — that has appropriated to itself the learning of all 
the ages, that can count and weigh the stars and follow them 
through almost illimitable space, that has even caught a raj' of 
light from the realm of the infinite and immortal — like a meteor 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 37 

blazes for a moment in space and sinks into darkness. I can 
not and will not believe in such a view of the human soul, so 
dreary and unnatural. Our blessed religion gives assurance of 
eternal life. Nature in her ever-recurring and never-ending 
miracles confirms the divine assurance. The apostrophe of the 
good Addison to the half-divine disciple of the immortal Greek 
utters the truth: 

It must be so ; Plato, thou reasonest well ! 

***** 
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man. 

Oh, it must be ! The just and good heirs of the universe will 
flourish in immortal youth! 

S.A.MUEL S. Cox, gentle and kind of heart, forgiving and 
merciful, who never heard, unmoved, a cry of distress, with 
that great multitude who, with pure hearts and lives devoted 
to the happiness of mankind, the alleviation of human misery, 
ascend from our globe to the realm of the immortals, will rejoice 
in the imperishable love and affection which began in this lower 
world and will find supreme happiness in learning, with every 
cycle of the c )untless ages, more and more, something of the 
nature of the infinite universe and of the attributes of the mer- 
ciful and ever-living Father of us all. 



ADDRESS OF MR. BANKS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. Speaker: Citizens who surrendered any considerable 
portion of their lives to the political service of a State or nation 
deserve the sympathy and respect of every race and caste of the 
family of man. 

Possibly it may be a little less fatal as a pursuit than war, 
but its labors are no less incessant, complicate, and crushing, 



38 Address of Mr. Banks^ of Massachusetts, on the 

with scarcely a suggestion or thought of adequate recognition 
or reward. 

A proper appreciation or estimate of its weight or woe is im- 
possible until death has silenced its aspirations and settled its 
claims to consideration and honor. 

What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor? what is that 
honor? Air. A trim reckoning ! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednes- 
day. Doth he feel it ? No. Is it insensible, then ? Yea, to the dead. 
But will it not live with the living ? No. Why ? Detraction will not 
suffer it. 

The distinguished and honorable members of this Hotise so 
lately deceased had without doubt realized the truth of this 
analysis of honor from the pen of the great master of human 
nature. 

The limitless void between what is accomplished and what is 
desired often terminates in the annihilation of hope and heart. 

The labor of love and the demands of duty are often insuf- 
ficient in weight and strength to counterbalance its anguish of 
disappointment and defeat. The honored and beloved col- 
league to whose memory our thoughts are turned at this mo- 
ment, Samuel Sullivan Cox, has left to us an illustrious and 
memorable example. He gave his life to the public service. 
From his youth his aspirations appear to have been directed to 
the amelioration, improvement, and elevation of his country 
and countrymen. 

He has left us no other tangible motive for the continuous, 
incessant, and crushing labors of his life. It appears in his 
earliest efforts to excite and elevate the common thought and 
action and is signally exhibited in his latest labors for the ad- 
mission of the States recently organized to the galaxy of the 
American Republic. 



Life and C/inracter of Samuel S. Cox. o9 

He was a distinguished member of Congress from the Thirty- 
fifth to the Fifty-first Congress, with one or two exceptions, 
either for a full term or part of a term; this division occurred 
only as the successor of James Brooks, Horace Greeley, and 
Mr. Pulitzer, all eminent citizens of his own profession. 

In his capacity as a member of different committees of the 
House of Representatives he was diligent, critical, and patriotic. 
He introduced and secured the adoption of a plan for the ap- 
portionment of Representatives; voted men and money for the 
civil war, although opposed to some administrative measures of 
the time. 

He was supported several times for the office of Speaker and 
was often made Speaker pro tempore. He created with much 
labor the census law of 1880; obtained increased pay of letter- 
carriers, and an annual vacation without reduction of salary. 

He was for many years a Regent of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, served on the Committees on Revolutionary Claims, Bank- 
ing, the Centennial Celebration, Rules, and Foreign Affairs. 

He participated largely in debate with fluent and classic 
speech, apt axid sturdy reasoning, rich in illustration and argu- 
ment. He engaged with unshrinking constancy and courage 
in some of the most important investigations of his time, such as 
the "Black Friday," Federal elections in cities, the New York 
post-office, and the ku-klux-klan troubles, and was the author 
and champion of the Life-Saving Service. His last important 
legislative work was in securing the union of many varied and 
conflicting local jurisdictions of New York in one united Fed- 
eral jurisdiction, for which he received the thanks of the New 
York Chamber of Commerce. 

During the last Administration he was offered an appoint- 
ment as consul at Peru, which he declined, and in 1886 was 



40 Address of Mr. Banks, of Massachusetts, on tliv 

appointed United States consul and, later, minister to Turkey 
by President Cleveland. In this position he was vigilant in his 
attention to the interests of his country, its commerce, and peo- 
ple. He secured just and prompt attention to the rights of his 
own country and countrymen, and enjoyed at all times the 
highest respect of the Turkish Government, its officers, and 
people. 

As minister Mr. Cox wisely imitated the example of the cele- 
brated Venetian traveler and savant of the thirteenth century, 
who gave to Europeans their earliest and only accurate knowl- 
edge of the extent, wealth, and civilization of the great Eastern 
empires. 

His works of travel and history, written during his residence 
abroad as minister and his travels as a citizen, not altogether 
well represented by their somewhat fanciful titles, have the 
double merit of benefiting the people he represented by making 
known to them the true character, interests, and resources of 
the empire to which he was accredited, as the hitherto com- 
paratively unknown races of the Chinese Empire, by the genius, 
generosity, manly integrity, and Spartan valor of Anson Bur- 
lingame, American minister to the Chinese Empire, were made 
the enduring friends of the American Republic! 

I recall an interesting incident in our national history which 
ought not to be forgotten. I think I can not be mistaken in 
saying that I received it from the lips of the late eminent states- 
man, William H. Seward, Secretary of State in the administra- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln. When the rebellion had been substantially 
suppressed by the Union Army it became necessary to obtain a 
recognition of the abolition of slavery by constitutional amend- 
ment as well as by the force of the national arms. This was a 
work of delay and difficulty. Citizens who were satisfied that 



Life and C/ia racier of Samuel S. Cox. 41 

no form of doubt should exist of tlie utter abolition of slavery 
were disinclined to procure that result by their own act. 

It was yet a question of comparative uncertainty how or 
when the grand results should be consummated b}' constitu- 
tional provision as by the chance of war. For a long time that 
triumph was deferred. At length in the enthusiasm of social 
festivities, then invested with great power in the administra- 
tion and settlement of the problems of state, Mr. Seward was 
informed that when his supporters wanted but one vote to com- 
plete the triumph of absolute national freedom to which the 
great Secretary had given his life — it was announced to him as 
tentative to the ultimate triumph or defeat of constitutional 
freedom that when he wanted but one vote to secure his tri- 
umph, a life-long Democrat stood pledged to support it! 

It was easy for the great Secretary to get the requisite num- 
ber, the last being assured, but difficult to obtain early conces- 
sions when the final and last concession was in the vocative. 
If he would disclose the name of the last convert of the Demo- 
cratic school, the work should be completed. That man was 
Samuel Sullivan Cox, whose death we this day deplore, and 
whose name we hold for this great act, as for many others, in 
perpetual national honor! 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Mills, of Texas. 

Mr. Speaker: The journey of life lies along the dark val- 
ley of the shadow of death. There is no spot on its pilgrimage 
where his presence is unknown. There is no family over whose 
hearthstone his somber shadow does not fall. There is always 
somewhere some eye that is weeping, some heart that is bleed- 



42 Address of Mr. Mills, of Texas, on the 

ing, some home whose light is extinguished and whose altars 
are draped in the testimonials of sorrow. Death is no respecter 
of persons. He visits alike the great and the small, the illus- 
trious statesman and the obscure citizen. 

When he crosses the threshold of the hovel and calls the hum- 
ble tenant whose days have been passed in the lowliest walks 
of life, unknown to the world, the busy throng moves on 
unconscious of the visitation and leaves the little circle of 
kindred hearts to the companionship of their grief. But when 
he calls for him around whose person the affections of a great 
people have been gathered and held for years, upon whose 
ability, integrity, and devotion to the public weal they have 
leaned for more than a generation with unbroken repose, and 
to whose name and character the love of a nation is indissoltibly 
linked, then the circle of sorrow is widened, and millions of 
forms bend in the presence of the divine messenger, feel the 
affliction, and join in the universal grief 

The inspired writer has told us that the heart of the wise is 
in the house of mourning. It is there that we bow around the 
altar of chastening. It is within that sanctuary that our eyes 
turn inward and the heart is uncovered to the inspection of the 
conscience. It is in the house of mourning that we find the 
secluded retreat where we make our confessions to our con- 
sciences as to a mediator. The world stands without its portals 
and without the circle of its benefactions while the spirit withjn 
is purified and refined by self-examination, self-conviction, self- 
accusation, and self-correction. How large is that house of 
mourning to-day, and how many stricken hearts are feeling its 
chastening presence ! 

Cox, Kelley, and Randall, after having served their country 
each for more than a quarter of a century, are taken from us 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 43 

during the same Congress, and within a few months of each 
other. Twelve months ago they were three of the most dis- 
tinguished of living American statesmen. Each was so firmly 
fixed in the affections of his constituents that no hand but tliat 
of death could disunite them. Scarcely have we returned from 
the grave of the first till we are called to follow the hearse of 
the second, and now while we are paying a loving tribute to his 
memory the third and last bids us adieu and joins his colleagues 
on the other shore. As we stand over the three newly made 
graves we may truly say that three great men have fallen. 

Mr. Cox was the first to enter this House, and the first to 
cross the river that divides us from the land of our fathers. Wr. 
Kelley, in order of time, came next in service here, and followed 
second in his departure. Mr. Randall came third and went 
third, and we may say of them all, as David said in his lament 
over Saul and Jonathan, " they were lovely and pleasant in 
their lives, and in their death they were not divided." 

The friends and constituents of Mr. Cox, among whom he 
lived so long and whom he represented for so many years, have 
paid to his memory all the honors that the living can pay to the 
dead. To-day we are assembled to add our tribute to his 
memory, to express our admiration for his abilit}% his high char- 
acter, and his long and efificient public service, and to place 
on the records of the House of Representatives the testimonials 
of a nation's sorrow at his death. 

Mr. Cox was a man of extraordinary gifts and extraordinary- 
attainments. He was endowed with a mind that caught its 
ideas on the wing. He did not plod and dig and sap and mine 
to hunt them out of their deep concealment. He did not lay 
in ambush and wait their coming in order to seize them. Like 
fire-flies about a burning lamp, they constantly flitted and 



44 Address of Mr. Mills.^ of Texas, on the 

played about his corruscating intellect. They were always on 
hand, and when he wanted them they were subject to his will, 
and he shot them like electric sparks from a charged battery. 

There was no friction and no confusion in his meiital ma- 
chinery. His brain never sulked nor balked; it never got mud- 
dled. It was always fresh, vigorous, equipped, and ready for 
duty. No sophistry, however adroitly veiled, could deceive it. 
In debate he would as quickly touch and unmask it as did 
Ithuriel with his heaven-tempered spear the father of sophistries 
in the garden of Eden. His mind had been thoroughly trained 
in youth, when the only thorough training is to be had. It 
had been subjected to the severest discipline, and through dis- 
cipline brought to its marvelous power. 

I recall with distinctness the first time I ever heard his name 
mentioned. It was in 1858, in a debate in the House, during 
his first term. He was attacked by a colleague from the same 
State, who belonged to the opposition. His opponent essayed 
to bring the young fledgling down and teach him a salutary 
lesson for his future improvement. But when the contest was 
over the critic found that he had played the role of pupil in- 
stead of instructor. That debate gave Mr. Cox a national repu- 
tation, and his colleague doubtless thought then, as many 
others have thought since, that in the intellectual arena he was 
a good man to let alone. 

He had an inexhaustible store-house of knowledge, which he 
had gathered up in a life-time of labor, and he was adding to it 
every day of his life. He studied books and traveled over land 
and sea to study man and nature. He climbed the sides of the 
tallest mountains in Europe. He penetrated the deserts of 
Asia and Africa to the boundaries of the savage tribes. He went 
out into the Arctic Ocean to see the sun for twenty-four hours 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 45 

where the earth upon which he stood did not intervene between 
him and the orb of day. He saw nature in all its aspects and 
humanity in all its phases. He was an accomplished scholar 
and well up in all the sciences. 

In the memorial services of Professor Henr}- I remxcmber 
how he surprised the savans in his address ; how he played with 
science and the scientists, and how familiar he was with the 
lives of the great scholars. In politics he was a Democrat of the 
straightest sect of that faith. He loved liberty, personal, politi- 
cal, civil, and religious. He believed with all his heart that 
man would attain his highest usefulness and highest happiness 
on earth whenever he had the largest liberty. 

He opposed paternalism in government in all its forms and in 
all its deceitful disguises. He believed that man was capable 
of self-government and would govern himself better than he 
would be governed by others; that the people who were gov- 
erned the least were governed the best; that the government 
that was furthest from the people was the most dangerous gov- 
ernment, the most difficult to restrain, and the most ambitious 
to encroach iipon the rights of the governed, and ought to be 
intrusted with the exercise of the least power; that the largest 
mass of powers should be granted to the local government, 
which was nearest to the people and more completely under 
their control; and that all governments, national, state, and 
local, should keep their hands off the citizen as long as he kept 
his hands off his fellow. 

In short, he believed that the proper function of government 
was to secure the person in the full enjoyment of all his natural 
rights, and to take none of them from him. He was raised in 
the creed of Thomas Jefferson and lived in it all his life, and 
labored earnestly to propagate it until the messenger called him 



46 Address of Mr. Mills, of Texas, on the 

to join the Great Founder of free government on the other side 
of the river of life. In Congress or on the hustings he was a 
quick and hard hitter, and in a partisan fight I have never 
known his equal. He would see every joint in his adversary's 
harness, and mercilessly pierce it when he lifted his lance in 
the lists. He could not only make a strong logical analysis of 
a proposition, but he could marshal his facts around it with 
great power. He was full of wit and it poured out of his brain 
like an artesian stream. As a humorist I doubt if this country 
has ever produced his equal. 

The shafts of some men leave wounds like poisoned arrows, 
wounds that rankle and heal slowly and sometimes never heal 
at all. He did not deal in that kind unless he felt that he had 
been savagely provoked. I never knew him to dip his arrow 
but once, and then he felt that he had been wantonly attacked 
and challenged to try results with his adversary. In that in- 
stance he came to the contest with his quiver full, and they 
were radiant with smiles and their barbs dripping with Marah's 
waters, in which they had been dipped for the battle. 

I have served with him here for sixteen years, and always on 
terms of the most intimate friendship. In economic science he 
always claimed me as one of his pupils. It was reading his 
early speeches that set me to studying the effects of tariff legis- 
lation on the material interests of the country. Few men have 
written or spoken with greater clearness and force than he 
has. To me he was one of the most charming of speakers and 
writers. He always sent me copies of his books as they came 
from the press, and I have read them with unflagging interest. 
His books of travel give vivid accounts of the countries and the 
peoples of which he writes, and in his pen-pictures the humorous 
side of human nature is never forgotten. 



Life and Charactcy of Samuel S. Cox. 47 

Whenever it came under the flash of his eye it came under the 
point of his pen, and in presenting it to his reader he had the 
happy faculty of holding the mirror up to nature. A man of 
such rare genius and of such varied accomplishments the world 
has rarely seen. With all these great qualities he was so genial 
and kind that he seemed to be encircled with sunshine wherever 
he moved. The sky above him seemed never overcast with 
clouds. There was no night beneath his feet, no storms above 
his head. It was all sunshine. He lived and abided in the 
light. 

In thought, speech, and act he stood in the meridian splendor 
of a cloudless da}-. His character was white, and stood out like 
a monumental pile of snow filtered and sifted by the fierce blast 
of an arctic winter. He was an able and distinguished member 
of Congress when corruption stalked like a harlot through these 
halls, but, thoroughly groimded in moral principle and guided 
always by a conscientious conviction of duty to himself, his 
family, and his country, he moved along impervious to its touch. 
When the ink of suspicion was blackening the names and rep- 
utations of many around him, he stood like a statue of white 
marble that was proof against defilement. 

j\Ir. Cox has left to his wife, his country, and his party much 
of which to be proud. They will often recur to his valuable 
and interesting works, to his splendid compositions, his eloquent 
and sparkling speeches, and the measures of legislation which 
he inaugurated and accomplished. He is dead, but he still 
lives in the hearts of the people, and he will live on the pages 
of our history as long as our history shall endure and as long 
as our posterity shall cherish true manhood and a loving and 
tender heart. 

He is dead, but we are assured that the dead shall live again, 



48 Address of Mr. Mills, of Tcxas^ on the 

that the grave shall give forth its dust, that the corruptible shall 
put on incorruption and the mortal immortality. That we shall 
all rise again is a faith that comes to me by inheritance, and I 
abide in it day and night. That we shall meet our friends who 
have gone before us and those who shall follow after us, in 
another and a higher and better state of being, I believe with 
my whole heart, but how, where, or when is beyond the realms 
of finite knowledge. Life is a mystery, and death is a mystery, 
and all beyond it is an unknown land. To all our inquiries 
the still, small voice replies, "Do your duty to God, yourself, 
and your fellow-man, and leave the rest to Him who doeth all 
things well." 

Mr. Cox's last moments were tranquil and serene. The 
philosophy that guided him through his life did not forsake 
him in the hour of death. The same cheerfulness that had 
accompanied him through the day-time of life remained with 
him when the night was drawing its curtains around him for 
his long and quiet sleep. When nearing the place of parting, 
in the way where the mortal and the immortal must separate, 
he said he had no regrets save one. He regretted the separation 
from his wife. 

From early life the twain had been one. She had been his 
constant companion at home and abroad, on land and on sea. 
Wherever he went she followed his steps with the faithfulness 
of his shadow. Now he felt he was to leave her alone and for 
the first time to enter on the journey without her companion- 
ship. 

He is gone from among us, and it will be many long years 
before the world will produce another like him. A grateful 
people mourn his loss and honor his memory. A nation tenders 
its heartfelt sympathy to her whose sorrow is deepest. 



Life and Cliaractcr of Satnitcl S. Cox. 49 

We gently fold the draper)- of his couch about him and la\- him 
down to sleep where immortelles and sweet forget-me-nots will 
bloom over his grave. We bow with resignation to the sum- 
mons that called him away, and we leave him with the angels 
who will stand at his tomb and keep watch over his slumbers, 
and we invoke Him who is above all angels, principalities, and 
powers to care for her whom His dispensation has left widowed 
and alone in the world. 



ADDRESS OF MR. BUTTERWORTH, OF OHIO, 

Mr. Speaker: Within a very brief period three men, con- 
spicuous alike for their ability and patriotism and also for their 
prominence in the affairs of the nation, have been taken from 
our midst by death. Samuel S. Cox was summoned first. 
Judge Kelley died soon after, and on last Sabbath morning 
Samuel J. Randall joined the others on the farther shore. 

These men were widely different in their characteristics. 
Each had a host of admirers and devoted friends. Doubtless, 
of the three, Samuel S. Cox was the more versatile, had the 
wider range of information, was the more eloquent and per- 
suasive. Mr. Randall was a leader of men. Judge Kelle\- won 
fame as a champion of a protective tariff. Mr. Cox had been 
longest in public life. He was a Representative from Ohio be- 
fore the war. 

In his public career he rode no hobb}-. He was a well 
equipped, "all around" fighter, and was equalh' available in a 
combat which involved finance, the tariff, internal improve- 
ments, foreign policy, or the advancement of the arts and 
H. Mis. 243 4 



50 Address of Mr. Biilterzvorth, of Ohio, on tlie 

sciences. His wide range of information, his studious habits 
and careful training, fitted him equally well and thoroughly for 
the discussion of every question that was brought before the 
legislative bodv of which he was a member. He differed from 
Randall in this, that he was a teacher, not an aggressive leader 
of men. His place was in the council, not in the fray. But it 
was not m\- purpose to suggest a comparison between these 
three men; they were all strong; they were all gifted, each in 
his way; each served the nation nobh- and deserved well of his 
country. 

My honorable triend from New York [Mr. Cummings] has, 
in a manner at once just and felicitous, given a history of the 
career of our late friend, but I beg to add a word or two. 
Samuel S. Cox was the son of a pioneer. He was born in 
Ohio. There was not a railroad beyond the x\lleghanies dur- 
ing his boyhood; of course the telegraph did not exist even in 
the mind of the dreamer. To use a phrase each woodman will 
understand, he took life "from the stump." In his early days 
there were about him but the rude appliances of pioneer life. 
In a home near the frontier, in the midst of such opportunities 
as a new State afforded, he began the battle of life. He was a 
natural student and literally fought his way to a collegiate edu- 
cation. 

Ohio at that time was a land of cabins and clearings, and 
though Mr. Cox's home was in the town, he attended the "log- 
rollings, ' ' the ' ' barn-raisings, ' ' and the ' ' corn-huskings, ' ' all im- 
portant institutions of that da\- and generation. They were not 
occasions for jollit\- ; they meant hard work, though mirth was 
at the fore; they were rendered necessary by the condition and 
hard lines of the pioneers. It was these conditions and sur- 
roundings that taught men to be self-helpful and also to lean 



Lijc and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 51 

upon one another. It developed in the settler that kindh- sym- 
pathy and love of neighbor which made the life of the then West 
as happy as it was free and independent. 

Mr. Cox was popular from his earliest boyhood; he was a 
natural orator, possessed of an eloquent, persiiasixe manner that 
never failed to captivate the audience he addressed. He was 
singled out in his school-boy days to be the orator on each oc- 
casion that required a speech ; he had stumped Ohio from lake 
to river before he had fairlj- passed his majority. He had a 
ready wit, and while it sometimes cut like a knife it was not 
his desire that it should wound. His wit and humor was like 
the aroma of rich wine. Like Lincoln and Corwin, he saw the 
ludicrous phase of things, and like those sterling patriots he 
saw and felt as well, in full measure, the solemn and serious 
aspect of portending events. He was a natural-born politician ; 
no one knew the weakness of man better than he. He could, 
unknown to them, guide men in the way he would have them 
go. He could convince them against their will, but with such 
adroitness and in such happy humor that they would find them- 
selves agreeing with hiiu while they deemed themselves to be 
in antagonism. 

His earl}- surroundings served him a useful purpose in after 
life. There he learned what it required to overcome the ob- 
stacles that confronted the settler, whose main equipment was 
a stout heart and willing hand. It awakened, or rather de- 
veloped, in him large and generous sympathy that never failed 
to find expression on fit occasions. He was a student of books, 
and not less a student of men and of nature. He traveled a 
great deal ; pondered upon old battle-fields where empires fought 
for supremacy; he delighted to trace the source and rise of war- 
ring powers; he felt a rich joy when standing on the Alps watch- 



52 Address of Mr. Butte}"ivorl/i^ of Ohio, on the 

\vl<^ the wild fur\- of the elements about him in the conflict of 
the storm. 

He foundia lesson in all he saw, and gleaned from all he heard, 
and retained for use all that was worth remembering. His 
word-paintings of what he saw in his travels were a well-spring 
of enjoyment to others. It might be .said of him as it was said 
of Byron, he "stood on the Alps, stood on the Appenines, and 
with the thunder talked, as friend with friend." Those here 
who have heard him describe the scenes midst which he stood, 
whether upon some tempest-tossed ocean, or of a war of the ele- 
ments about the mountain-top whence he gazed, or of some 
battle between armies fighting for empire, can never forget the 
graphic pictures he drew. It is not easy to measure the influ- 
ence of such a character upon his fellow-men. He will live 
longer in the hearts of his countrymen, his influence for good 
will be felt after all recollection and trace of others who have 
occupied for the moment a larger place in the world's affairs have 
been forgotten. Man}" will be remembered for having been 
identified with some single act which gave them conspicuous 
prominence by association with other actors or with some single 
event. 

The life of Mr. Cox from his childhood down to the day of 
his decease was marked b}' one uninterrupted series of kindh" 
acts and expressions, by earnest labor and devoted work in be- 
half of his fellow-men. These have left their impress upon the 
people amidst whom he moved. Yes, and its influence went 
forth in an ever-widening circle. 

I know something of the kindly remembrance in which he 
was held in his native State. When he returned to it, which 
he did frequently, gray-haired men with little strength left un- 
der their weight of years would insist upon going out to hear 



Life and Cliaractcr of Sai)iitcl S. Cox. ■IJi 

the man to whom the}- had listened in his boyhood days. They 
never failed to be instructed and improved by the speech they 
heard. Upon stich occasions Mr. Cox was most happy in por- 
traying the scenes of his youth and the honorable part his aged 
hearers had taken in building up the State. 

The trying ordeals through which the old pioneers had passed 
to attain the splendid results that remained to bless them were 
pictured in the happiest vein of the speaker. He never failed 
to pay a fitting and deserved tribute to the fathers and the 
mothers whose patient toil and untiring industry had wrought 
the change in that fair land which their children enjoy to-day. 
He was not only a speaker of exceptionally good ability, but 
he wrote with equal facility. He could make an adversary 
writhe under his pen or tongue when he saw fit to exercise his 
power. But it seldom occurred that his kindliness did not 
prompt him to forbear, even when his adversary deserved the 
punishment. 

It is but just to say that in his life's labors he was assisted by 
a devoted and brilliant wife, and it is said that to her gentle- 
ness and kindly nature many of Mr. Cox\s political adversaries 
are indebted for the suppression of asperities which but for her 
would have found expression in his lines. Like a true woman, 
her kindly sympathy suggested that her husband might be se- 
vere and just and yet be kind even to gentleness. His life was 
a pleasant one. Mr. Cox had the faith of a Christian; that faith 
he .showed by his works. I remember lolling with him in the 
lobby of the House one da}-, when we got to talking about 
Christian faith, and I said to him: "Cox, what is your religious 
faith, or do }-ou have au}-?' " He i-eplied, ' ' Yes, I have. I believe 
in the religion which was taught and exemplified in the life of 
the Nazarene, and I never fail to bear testimonv to the ennobling 



54 Address of Mr. Butfcrzvortli, of Ohio, on the 

and piirifj'ing influence of the Christian religion." And we, 
who have heard him, will remember that he was always a wit- 
ness for Christian precepts and in charity and kindness enforced 
those precepts b\- worthy example. 

It is not my purpose to suggest that Mr. Cox was a saint or 
that he was what the world would adjudge to be a thoroughly 
exemplary Christian; but here, bidding him adieu on this day, 
paying this last tribute of respect to his memory, it is a duty 
and a pleasure to say of him that the world was better that he 
lived, and that those with whom he came in contact were made 
better by that association. I think the influences of his pre- 
cepts and examples of his life were to elevate men. 

He was a natural democrat; he believed in evolution, and 
thought the human race woild work out its own salvation 
without much bruising or breaking to mend perverse spirits. 
He found some good in ever}' man, although in some cases it 
required a careful search. 

We shall miss him here. There have been many occasions 
during this session when I have found myself looking up to 
catch the face of the brilliant man from New York, to be in- 
structed by his knowledge, to be convinced by his logic, to en- 
joy his wit, or possibly to wince under his sarcasm. 

He has gone from our midst. The death of Judge Kelley was 
not unexpected; the death of Mr. Cox was sudden and not 
anticipated. We parted from him in health in the spring; we 
expected to serve with him here in the fall and winter. Ran- 
dall was strong and vigorous. His death seemed untimely and 
unnatural. The death of these, our friends and late associates, 
reminds us that we are hastening to the grave, and the work 
which is given us to do must be done while it is yet day. We 
part company with these choice spirits with regret, but I am 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 55 

persuaded that we have parted with no one whom we will hold 
in more affectionate remembrance for personal worth, for gen- 
erous and noble bearing, than Samuel S. Cox. 



Address of Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. 

Mr. Speaker: Among works of nrt there are pictures called 
mosaics; and these eulogies upon our dead colleagues form the 
mosaic portraits drawn by various hands, each drawing that par- 
ticular feature which he best recalls, making a compact and, as 
a rule, a just and faithful portraiture of even,' beloved lineament 
and every well-remembered feature. The portraiture of Mr. 
Cox requires more of this separate treatment than that of almost 
any of the colleagues with whom I have served in my brief 
public career. He was, more than almost any man I ever met, 
many-sided. 

There is reluctance in the human mind in admitting that a 
man possesses more than one great quality. If he be eloquent 
it is hard to realize that he may be extremely cautious and able 
and strong; if he be witty, we are apt not to think him wise, 
conservative, and politic; if he be gallant and chivalric, we are 
inclined to think that he is not possessed of cool and cautious 
judgment; when the fact is that great qualities frequently go 
together. They are but different aspects of a majestic nature; 
they are revelations of a unique and imperial soul exhibiting 
itself in different relations. And Mr. Cox had many appa- 
rently diverse qualities that had the same common root. 

In tropical countries we find on the same tree at the same 
time the green leaf, the embryonic blossom, the full flower, the 
green fruit, the jellow and ripened orange, so that one can 



56 Address of Afr. Breckinridge, of Ke)itucl;\\ on tin- 

gather from its l^ranches the sweetest fragrant flowers as a bridal 
wreath, while another plucks the ripened fruit for his feast. So 
our friend at times weaved a bridal wreath of fragrant flowers, 
while at other times he furnished to this House the richest 
feast from those marvelous attainments and equally varied gifts 
which he possessed. 

It was this many-sidedness of his character that strvick me 
when I first came into contact with him. He possessed more of 
these qualities than almost any man I ever knew; a clearness 
of statement that was scarcely surpassed (if I may be allowed a 
personal allusion) by him who was the Speaker of the last 
House; a quickness and nimbleuess of debate on the spur of 
the moment that was nearl)- equal to that of the Republican 
leader in the late House, now promoted to its Speakership; a 
gentleness and tenderness not surpassed by anybody; a playful- 
ness that attracted; and under that playfulness the quick stroke 
of the rapier, for graceful is the hand that uses the Damascus 
steel; and with it all a wealth of learning, a breadth of attain- 
ment, a happiness of illustration that never descended into 
triviality, that always illustrated as well as adorned; and then 
with these the peculiar quality- that we sometimes call cat-like, 
so that whenever his adversary thought he had thrown him he 
found that he had lit upon his feet, ready to conduct the con- 
test on absolutely equal terms. His very defeat seemed to be 
the means of reconquest in the continued and uninterrupted 
process of debate. So that under all circumstances and in every 
emergency he exhibited adaptability to that particular occasion 
and that peculiar environment. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, these are remarkable qualities, each some- 
what rare in itself, in combination extremely rare, and yet it is 
one of the curious facts of our peculiar and duplex nature, fear- 



Life and Cliaractcr of Saniucl S. Cox. 57 

fully and wonderfully made, that they are rarely found in com- 
bination in those men who are called to do some act supremely 
great. They belong to that class of men who are leaders of 
men, who are leaders of thought, who are necessary to the con- 
test, who adorn the annals of the era in which they live, who 
make honorable and noble work and give inspiration to others. 
And yet they seem to have so many qualities that in no one are 
they supremely great for a great occasion. Therefore it is not 
unnatural that Mr. Cox, who was always a conspicuous mem- 
ber of this House, always an able and influential member of 
this House, never became the leader of his party. 

There is something needed that has more in it of iron than 
was in his composition ; something that has in it less of consid- 
eration for the reputation and for the feelings of his followers 
and of his enemies than he had; something more of willfulness, 
something larger of the capacity to risk all, to dare all, and to 
wound and, if necessar\-, to trample on all who stand between 
him and the accomplishment of the purpose which he feels 
called upon to accomplish, than he possessed. And it is proba- 
bly, therefore, a greater tribute to his memory and to his loving 
nature, as well as to the tenderness and gentleness of his life 
and the attractiveness in all that he did. that he did not possess 
these sterner qualities of leadership. 

Thirty-two years have passed away, nearly, since ]\Ir. Cox 
came into the House of Representatives. The other day, when 
we were passing just eulogies to the memory of Judge Kelley, 
the thought that was uppermost in my mind was that he repre- 
sented, during the thirty years of his life and service, a victo- 
rious party. Now, when we come to pay our eulogies to this 
colleague, the corresponding contrasting thought is that for the 
larger part of his life he represented a falling and defeated 



58 Address of Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, on the 

party or a party struggling from opposition towards majority. 
He entered public life at the time when the Democratic party 
was separating itself, not by the attacks of its enemies, but by 
its own hand compassing its division and destroying its power. 
He signalized his entrance into this House by a bright, able, 
stirring speech, which marked the dissensions between, not his 
part}' and his enemies, but between him and many party friends. 

The very earliest of his public services in the House was to 
defend the leader of a part of that party against its nominal and 
official head. He saw that party divided amidst the throes and 
the bloodshed of the most terrific war between the States that 
history has ever chronicled or the world has ever seen. He re- 
turned to public life from the great and imperial metropolis, 
which sits crowned upon the shores of the Atlantic, with a 
handful of colleagues who felt and thought as he did. He 
stemmed the great tide of Republican victories, the fair results 
from the successful conduct of the war, from the emancipation 
and enfranchisement of four and a half millions of human 
beings, and from meeting with intrepid purpose the perplexing 
problems of an enormous public debt. 

He stood with that minority amid the sad and terrible days 
of reconstruction, and lived to see it grow constantly stronger 
and stronger, but never obtaining possession of the departments 
of the Government in such a wav that it could crystallize upon 
the statute-books its opinions of public policy and its judgments 
of great economic questions. And he died, after thirly-two 
years of brilliant and conspicuous service, in the ranks of a 
defeated .party. 

His colleague was borne to the grave as one of the leaders of 
that party which had control of the statute-books of the nation 
for a period of thirty years; this colleague we bore as the repre- 



Life atid Character of Saimiel S. Cox. 59 

sentative of a part)- who during all of that time was in opposi- 
tion. Who can say which is he that the coimtry owes most to, 
he who helped to form its policy or he who b\- voice and ear- 
nestness checked fiirther encroachments? 

Who can tell, in the action and reaction of counteracting in- 
fluences, which is the better, that which is powerful for positive 
legislation or that which is potent as the check on legislation ? 
And as we leave this Hall on this day, which is typical of his 
life, this faultless spring day, with its cloudless sky and its 
genial and bright sun, with the vernal blossoms just bursting 
into bloom, and the melody of the birds which is heard in the 
trees, who can tell to-morrow and in the days that are to come, 
as the younger men take the places of the older, to whom shall 
most honor be given ? Or rather can we not well sav that, on the 
graves of both of them and on the newer grave of the more 
stalwart and willful and aggressive leader whom we have just 
buried, a nation, forgetting their differences for the moment, ob- 
literating animosities, can say of each, "He did as he thought 
best for a country' he loved with all his heart, under a sense of 
duty to a God who led him in the pathwa)- he pursued? " 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Bland, of Missouri. 

Mr. SPE.A.KER : When I first came to Congress, in December, 
1873, I found Mr. Cox a member of the House. He had served 
many terms prior to that. I had never met Mr. Cox before. 
His reputation at that time as an orator was world-wide; con- 
sequently I was anxious to meet him and to hear him speak. 
My admiration for the man grew upon me as I became more 
familiar with him. 



60 Address of Mr. Bland, of Missouri, on the 

The Forty-third Congress, to which I have alluded, gave 
inanv occasions for the display of his oratory, wit, and humor. 
It was a notable Congress in our history. Mr. Blaine was 
Speaker. . General Butler, of Massachusetts, was then the ac- 
knowledged leader ou the Republican side. 

General Butler, with all his great ability and pertinacity, 
pressed what were then known as the force bill and the civil- 
rights bill. He succeeded in passing the civil-rights bill, but 
through the dilatory tactics of the Democratic party, led by Mr. 
Randall, of Pennsylvania (whose death but a week ago we are 
also called to mourn), with Mr. Cox as our great champion in 
debate, the force bill was defeated. Justice requires me to say 
in passing that the strict impartiality shown by ]\Ir. Blaine, the 
Speaker, during this memorable contest extorted the highest 
warmth of admiration from his political opponents. In that 
fight there were two great men and great characters brought 
more prominently than before into public notice. These were 
Samuel J. Randall and S.^muel Sullivan Cox. 

These two late Liberal leaders in American politics have 
their counterparts across the waters. Mr. Cox was truly our 
Parnell, while Mr. Randall in many characteristics was to us a 
Gladstone. 

My service here with Mr. Cox began in the Forty-third Con- 
gress, and was continuous, except in the Forty-ninth Congress, 
while he was minister to Turkey. I was fortunate to have a 
seat by him for two years. In this way I learned to know him 
as a friend. From overwork and cares incident to public life I 
was in faHing health. Mr. Cox took great interest in my case. 
He gave me the benefit of his advice and experience, for he 
was never robust himself His amiable disposition and jocular 
good humor threw a halo of sunshine around his companions. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 61 

As iny health gradually recovered I used to tell him that it was 
all due to his cheerful compauy and buoyant temperament. 

Mr. Speaker, in our journeyings we encounter plains, table- 
lands, hills, and mountains, and mountain peaks that look 
grand in the distance, their summits peering above the clouds 
in their dazzling, misty heights; the plains and hills covered 
with forests of shrubbery and young trees struggling to higher 
proportions. Here and there we find clumps of huge foresters, 
with the growth of ages, shooting their foliage high above 
their surroundings as if to catch the first rays of the sun and to 
drain from the clouds the first drops of water, the winds whist- 
ling and sighing amid their boughs like an .-Eolian harp. Far 
above the tallest forest trees and amid the crags of the loftiest 
mountain peaks soars the eagle, now basking in the burning 
radiance of a summer's sun and now riding upon the storm, de- 
Ring the thunder's roar and the lightning's glare. So tow- 
ered in grandeur and majestic flights the enchanting eloquence 
and withering satire of S. S. Cox. As an intellectual man he 
was a giant; as a genius he was a prodig}'. 

Mr. Speaker, how often have we witnessed his powers here. 
The ablest who crossed swords with him in the repartee of run- 
ning debate did so with all the misgivings of foregone defeat. 
I can now recall many occasions when the mad passion of party 
swa>'ed the House as a cyclone would twist a forest, when 
it seemed inevitable that blows must follow words. At this 
juncture Mr. Cox would take the floor and by the impassioned 
eloquence of a Clay calm tumult to tears and by the wit of a 
Curran set the House in roaring laughter and good humor. 

Mr. Cox was a man of the kindliest and most humane im- 
pulses. He was of noble spirit, a patriot and philanthropist. 
He loved his whole countr}-; but his lo\-e of libert\-, of tlie 



62 Address of Mr. Bland, of Missouri, on the 

Jeffersonian idea of home rule or local self-government, was 
world-wide. Ireland had no greater friend or abler advocate in 
her struggles for freedom than Mr. Cox. The tears of Ireland 
and the tears of America will mingle in love and sympathy for 
his memory so long as manhood is honored and liberty held 
sacred. 

Mr. Cox loved our Union for the Union's sake. His voice 
and his vote were potential in aid of the war for the Union. 
When resistance to the Union ceased his cause of war ceased. 
He had no resentments. His voice was raised for peace and 
amnesty. He labored to restore the Union by constitutional 
methods. 

The unhappy people of the South, in their struggles for 
restored liberty under our Constitution, had no truer or abler 
champion than he. The idea of State government taught by 
Jefferson, that we now call home rule, was a cardinal principle 
with him. No man living or dead did more in these Halls 
than he to cement our people in the sublime principles of union 
and justice. 

Mark Antonv played the necromancer over the dead body of 
Caesar. He moved the Roman populace to tears and roused in 
them all the passions of terrible revenge. Yet Csesar's fame 
was baptized in a Rubicon of human blood; his sword had cut 
from their moorings the liberties of the people, that he might 
float upon a sea of imperial power. 

The great man whose death we mourn to-day, the utterances 
of whose tongue had so often moved his countrxineu to wild 
applause and rapturous admiration, was loved by the people for 
his great genius as a statesman and orator, for his magnanimous 
spirit and humane sympathies. His great victories were achieve- 
ments of intellect, the trophies of valor won in the arena of de- 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 63 

bate. His walks were the walks of peace; his ambition was 
tempered by justice and mercy. His bounding heart took in 
loving embrace the oppressed everywhere. His joyous smile 
was the delight of his companions. In him was the well-spring 
of perpetual youth. Verging on to near the allotted three-score 
and ten, yet had Mr. Cox li\-ed a century he would have died 
young. Neither age nor physical infirmities could wrinkle his 
sunny face, quench the fire of his eye, nor blight the evergreen 
in his soul. 

Our ideas associate the better world beyond with peace and 
joy, mirth and song. If this be true, death for him was only 
the lifting of the thin veil separating time from eternity. As 
he left this, so he stepped upon the other shore. There was no 
change. 

As Prentice said of the immortal Clay: 

But he is gone, the free, the bold. 

The champion of his country's right; 
His burning eye is dim and cold, 

And mute his voice of conscious might. 
Oh, no I not mute ; his stirring call 

Can startle tyrants on their thrones. 
And on the hearts of nations fall 

More awful than his living tones. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. BUCKALEW, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Speaker: I shall speak to a few points in the character 
and career of Mr. Cox, leaving to others to draw a more com- 
plete picture of the man and of the achievements by which he 
is best known to this generation and will be remembered in 
future times. 

j\lr. Cox went abroad in early manhood and again in mature 



64 Address of Mr. Buckaleiv^ of Pennsylvania^ on tJic 

age, and gained varied stores of knowledge from observation of 
the natural features, the men, and the institutions of other 
lands, first as a private citizen and again as a representative of 
the Government of the United States. He was always observ- 
ant, discriminating; enjoying the romantic and historic associa- 
tions of all the places and scenes visited, constantly gathering 
materials for reflection and conversation, for literary labor and 
for public discourse. Europe gave to him vivid impressions of 
her forms of civilization, the organizations of her governments, 
the peculiarities of her people, and of the evils which attend 
upon dense populations in ciowded cities. 

But he also found there a development in scientific pursuits, 
in literature, and in art to which the New World has not at- 
tained, and also ecclesiastical organizations antedating Colum- 
bus and Newton, which yet in great measure dominate the 
religious beliefs of the world. 

And in the far East, upon the coasts of Africa and Asia, he 
wandered like another Volney among the ruins of empires, in- 
dulging in reflection upon the mutability of htiman affairs, 
gazing with astonishment upon the monuments of past grandeur 
and contrasting them with present degeneracy and decay. The 
.sacred land of the Jews, the capital of the Turk by the Mar- 
morean Sea, and that land of wonders, the Valley of Egypt, 
brought back to memory the classic books of college days: 
Herodotus and Homer, the Mosaic and New.Testament writings, 
the polished pages of Xenophon and Gibbon. Perhaps he re- 
called also with humorous enjoyment the less pretentious nar- 
rati\e of the United States expedition under Lynch to explore 
the tortuous courses of the Jordan and the salt waters of the 
Dead Sea. 

In his last sojourn abroad he saw and studied "the unspeak- 



Life and Cliaractcr of Samuel S. Cox. 65 

able Turk" in his home, his quick eye detecting elements of 
the ludicrous, the incongruous, the romantic, and the pictur- 
esque all around him. There were the Mosque of Omar, once 
a Christian church ; the seraglio of the Sultan, and ail the 
splendors of the Golden Horn; and in the bazars and streets 
of the great city were to be seen men of various nationalities 
and of varied costumes: the Bedouin of the desert, the pasha 
with retinue from Damascus, the Maronite from Lrebanon, Bul- 
garians of the Danube, merchants from Macedonia, and the 
pious pilgrim just preparing to join the annual caravan to holy 
Mecca, to the tomb of the Prophet, far south toward the coffee 
lands of Araby the Blest. No more varied and motley assem- 
blage than can be seen at Constantinople was collected at Jeru- 
salem on the day of Pentecost, told of in the second chapter of 
the Acts, when "Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the 
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in 
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in 
the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews 
and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, ' ' did each hear in his own 
tongue of the wonderful works of Crod. 

But whether at Constantinople or Cairo, at Rome or at Paris, 
in Berlin or in London, Mr. Cox was ever the American, always 
and everywhere "A Buckeye Abroad." If not a "stranger in 
a strange land," if scenes grew familiar from nearness of view 
and from recollections of their former glory, still, outside his 
own country there was for him "no abiding city," no place to 
be chosen for permanent abode. He would have languished 
even as a member of the American colony at Paris. He did 
tire of his surroundings and of inaction at Constantinople. He 
longed to come back to our great city by the sea, to revisit his 
native valley of the West, and above all and beyond all to stand 
H. Mis. 243 5 



66 Address of Mr. Buckaleu\ of Pennsylvania^ on the 

again in this Honse, a loved and honored representative of 
American institntions and American men. 

This desire was gratified by the city of New York, which 
again assigned to him a seat on this floor, and he appeared 
among us at the opening of the Fiftieth Congress. 

In that Congress Mr. Cox chose the position of chairman of 
the Census. Committee, and he reported the bill under which 
the population and industrial statistics of the country are to be 
taken the present year. The increase of the States and Terri- 
tories in wealth and numbers was to him a subject of deep in- 
terest and of patriotic pride. He rejoiced in all signs of public 
prosperity and indulged hopeful anticipations of the future. 

In the same Congress he was conspicuous in support of irri- 
gation surveys and works of water supply in the far West. He 
conceived such works in the Territories to be legitimate and 
important objects of national policy, and his imagination bodied 
forth a bright picture of prosperity for settler and citizen upon 
our waste and arid lands when those lands should by such 
works be reclaimed for human use. Canon, valley, and ravine, 
gorge and basin, were to be utilized; scientific skill was to bar 
their outlets, and thousandsof made channels convey the stored- 
up waters to town, garden, and farm, to fruit-tree, meadow, and 
pasture land, in all those sections that skirt the mountains of 
the Southwest. Under human control and directed to human 
use, the great mountains that milk the clouds were to send 
down to the thirsty plains their fructifying and life-giving 
waters. 

In supporting this policy he recurred to his observations in 
Syria and Asia Minor, where, by the destruction of mountain 
forests and neglect of irrigation works that once existed, water 
supplies have been lost and sterility established upon what were 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 67 

once fertile lauds sustaining great populations and prosperous 
states. 

The admission of four new States into the Union was another 
subject upon which Mr. Cox felt great interest at the last session, 
and he exerted himself to the utmost in favor of the admission 
bill in the House. He looked upon the rise of free Common- 
wealths in the Northwest with genuine pride and with high 
hopes of their future. That stalwart men hy Puget Sound, in 
the recesses of the Rocky Mountains, and along the Red River 
of the North should have their desires fulfilled and a hearty 
"God speed" given them in their onward march to the posi- 
tion of great States, gratified his sympathies and excited him to 
zealous and determined eflfbrt. When in some one of those new 
States a great capitol building shall be erected with a statue of 
Samuel S. Cox placed at the entrance, a fitting tribute will 
have been paid to his memon,' by the men he served. 

It will be seen that the labors of Mr. Cox in the last Con- 
gress were largely directed to the census enumeration of 1890, 
with its elaborate industrial statistics for the whole countr}-; to 
the reclamation of arid and waste lands in the far West, and to 
the admission of new States. Time would fail to sketch even 
in outline the immense number and variety of subjects which 
engaged his attention during his prior long service in this House. 
He was here before the war of the rebellion, during the prog- 
ress of that struggle and afterwards; always prominent in 
debate and always prominent before the country. How well he 
bore himself in all that time, what displays he made of fertility 
in resources, aptness and quickness of movement, steady con- 
sistency, discretion, and dauntless courage, is best known to 
those who saw him most and judged him closeh\ It was, how- 
ever, his quickness of perception and keen wit that specially 



68 Address of Mr. Biickalciv, of Pennsylvania., on the 

distinguished him in the House. These enlivened discussion, 
gave point or illustration to argument, and enabled him to 
carry off the honors in many a contest. 

His perceptive and receptive faculties were of a high order, 
enabling him to take impressions and knowledge from all 
.sources — from nature, from books, and from men; and what he 
obtained he held in a retentive memory, and drew upon it at 
pleasure. Thus he was mentally a full and a ready man, pre- 
pared upon most subjects for discourse or exposition and to 
comprehend and appreciate their treatment by others. Sensi- 
tive at all times to the influence of his immediate surroundings 
in communication with an audience, a social circle, or a com- 
panion, he received impressions as readily as he gave them; 
hence, all his relations in human intercourse were relations of 
mutual appreciation, and commonly those of sympathy also. 

When he chose to amuse an audience the enjoyment of the 
audience was his own also, veiled by a discreet self-restraint in 
its manifestation, and the sympathetic bond which united 
speaker and audience always remained unbroken. In efforts of 
a discursive character, when fancy was let loose to depict re- 
semblances or draw contrasts between things near and remote, 
or those known and imagined, his audience went willingly with 
him upon his e.vcursion, and realized his picture in all its de- 
tails, their minds led captive by an art which with the speaker 
was unfailing and instinctive. 

In intellectual collision, in occasional combat, Mr. Cox ex- 
celled. He was fitl>- armed for the fray and not loath to engage 
his antagonist. In encounter his weapon was not the battle-a.x 
of Richard, but the keen cimeter of Saladin, and that weapon 
he wielded with an ability which intimidated foes and excited 
the enthusiastic applause of friends and supporters. Those who 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. liO 

looked on admired the skill of the champion and enjoyed his 
triumph. Sympathy went with him alike in sportive foray 
and in regular combat; for he was as chivalric as enterprising, 
and struck only to disarm his antagonist, not to mutilate or 
degrade him. Spitefulness and malice had no lodgment in his 
soul ; his anger when most provoked was curbed by magna- 
nimity and self-respect, and he did not permit the sun to go 
down upon his wrath. 

He reasoned soundly, and often strongly, in debate; but to 
the multitude it was his occasional strokes of witty allusion to 
men and events, his pictures of the romantic or the ludicrous, 
and his appeals to sympathy and generous emotion that gave 
zest to his discourse and elicited admiration. 

That Mr. Cox loved admiration more than most men and 
labored and toiled for it with zeal and diligence is perfectly 
true. To attain to a firm place in the hearts of his country- 
men, and especially of his associates in public service — this was 
the ardent desire of his soul, which inspired effort, defied 
fatigue, and was, briefly stated, a great motive-power of his 
public life. But tliis love of approbation was of a very manly 
.sort, and was associated with moral and intellectual convictions 
which gave steadiness to his character and withheld him from 
the arts of the demagogue and from base subjection to the evil 
influences of his time. 

I think I ma}- justly claim that he was not merely an honest 
man in the common acceptation of that term, but that his in- 
tegrity was of a high order and was constant and sure. Wlieu, 
pending a late election in Ohio, his name, with those of others, 
was forged to a pretended ballot-box contract, no eifect to his 
disparagement was produced in his native State. There and 
everywhere else throughout the country, to all intelligent per- 



70 Address of Mr. Btickalezc, of Pennsylvania, on the 

sons, it appeared incredible that Mr. Cox should turn speculator 
in the legislation of Congress, and the charge was rejected be- 
fore it was disproved. It was, in fact, as impossible that Mr. 
Cox should have engaged in the alleged enterprise as that the 
eloquent member of this House from Kentucky [Mr. Breckin- 
ridge] or the popular leader of this House [Mr. McKinle>] 
should have fallen into evil ways, or that the great Senator 
from Ohio [Mr. Sherman] shotild have lost his mental poise 
and his superb caution in prospect of petty and illegitimate 
gains. 

Three men, each of long service in this House, have taken 
rank in jjublic opinion and will take rank in our annals as men 
of genuine wit: Randolph of Roanoke, Stephens of Pennsyl- 
vania, and Samuel S. Cox. They were not jokers nor pun- 
sters, nor were they sentence-makers, like our American Junius 
of the Senate; but in different ways, each with individual pecul- 
iarities, they reached a like ^ position and distinction as men of 
pleasing and pungent speech. 

It is by contrast that we can best view these former strong 
men of the House. Randolph was eccentric and insubordinate; 
in a majority willful and restless; in opposition lawless and un- 
restrained. But from his speeches, in the imperfectly reported 
debates of his time, may be selected many a sparkling gem in 
which thought and diction assumed almost perfect forms — 
passages which charmed the age in which they were uttered, 
and now, after the lapse of three-fourths of a century, linger 
long in the recollection of all who read them. 

Thaddeus Stevens was a master of quick-witted speech. On 
man}' an occasion his strokes of humor disarmed enmity and 
extorted admiration. His humor was sometimes grim, some- 
times playful, sometimes caustic, but it was always of genu- 



fjfc and Cliaracler of Samuel S. Cox. 71 

iiie stamp and was exactl)- suited to his immediate purpose. 
Tweuty-two years ago, upon fit occasion in another place, I 
sketched the character and career of that remarkable man, not 
with words of fulsome praise, but, I think, with discrimination 
and justice. 

When we compare Mr. Cox with his predecessors many more 
points of difference than of similarity appear. He was unlike 
them in form, in manner, in modes of thought, in habits of life. 
He had not the bony finger, often extended, of the one, nor the 
impassive countenance and demeanor of the other. To those 
who will seek for them there are somber lines of coloring in 
any complete picture of Randolph or Stevens, but in the por- 
trait of Cox the lines are all light and cheerful. No bodily 
imperfection, as in the case of Byron, gave to him embittered 
reflection or caused embittered speech. 

He enjoyed life and imparted enjoyment to others. He was 
in sympathy with his surroundings, and obstacles in his way 
did not discourage him. He was a diligent worker and loved 
his work, for thereby he wrought out results, secured self-ap- 
probation and the approval of others. He was distinguished 
by versatility in labor and employment. His time was not 
wasted. Independent of Congressional service, he read much 
and he wrote much — correspondence, books, essays, speeches, 
lectures, newspaper articles. 

He spoke often to great audiences and to select ones. His 
active life, full of incident and achievement, was beyond ques- 
tion a happy life also. Randolph was admired and feared; Cox 
was admired and loved. Many warm friends stood by him 
from youth upward, and many new ones gathered around him 
in mature age. Their sympathy encouraged and sustained him 
in all his life-work and attended him to its close. 



72 Address of Mr. McMiHiii, of Tennessee^ on the 

He was also fortunate in his home — a home where his affec- 
tions could have safe and steady anchorage — and in a compan- 
ion who merited all his esteem and held his whole heart as her 
priceless and unchallenged possession. To that companion, 
now sitting bereaved in the great city by the Hudson, goes out, 
and will continue to go out, the sincere and profound sympathy 
of this House. 



ADDRESS OF MR. MCMlLLIN, OF TENNESSEE, 

Mr. Speaker: Death has again invaded our ranks. What 
sad reflections crowd upon us when contemplating the fall 
of this learned patriot! "The silver cord has been loosed, 
* * * the gfolden bowl broken. ' ' The three men oldest in 
service in the House all taken from us in less than two hundred 
days ! Mr. Cox, whose loss we mourn to-day, was elected to 
this House fourteen times. Mr. Randall, whom we sadly fol- 
lowed to the tomb this week, was elected fourteen times. 
Judge Kelley, who died after the holidays, was elected fifteen 
times. They were all unostentatious in manner, patient in 
labor, patriotic in purpose. Do we realize the loss when an 
experienced statesman dies ? Ivcarning may be gathered here 
again, and intellect may be obtained, but their experience, 
gone forever, can not be supplied. 

Samuel S. Cox was born in Ohio, September 30, 1824. A 
college graduate with distinguished honors at the age of 22; 
secretary to the legation to Peru at 31; a member of Congress 
at 33. He represented the capital district of Ohio for eight 
years. He came from that great State at the time when Thur- 
man and Vallandigham, distinguished Democrats, were meeting 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 73 

in the intellectual arena Sherman, Joshua R. Giddings, and 
other strong men of their party. He concluded to change his 
residence, but followed not the usual course of emigration in 
this country southward or westward. He looked east and be- 
held a great city stretching out on the Hudson and the Sound, 
spread around which, not confined to one State, were other 
grand cities, making a center of population the wonder and ad- 
miration of the age and the glory of the continent. Metropol- 
itan in its proportions, it had in its midst business men from 
every quarter of the globe and every nationality of the world. 

To this city, which was too big for jealousies, too grand for 
rivalries, and too great for prejudices — to New York — he wended 
his way. Quick to perceive merit and ready to reward it, Mr. 
Cox was received in the city of his adoption with open arms. 
He was learned in the lore of every land. He could talk intel- 
ligently to every nationality of the things peculiar to itself. 
All lands and tongues were tributary to his knowledge. When 
he narrated his travels, by his genius a more enchanting witch- 
ery danced upon the waters across which he had been wafted 
and a brighter halo hovered around the hills over which he 
clambered. 

When he arrived in New York his welcome was not confined 
to mere words. Ten times he was elected to this House from 
New York City, sometimes by the district in which he lived, at 
other times by districts of which he was not a resident. Every 
member of this House can bear truthful testimony to the un- 
tiring vigilance with which he watched its interests and the 
great ability with which he defended them. 

Married in early life, he was blessed with a companion who 
went with him in all his trials and rejoiced in all his triumphs. 
Both intellectual and learned, she was in full sympathy with 



74 Address of Mr. McMillin^ of Tennessee^ on the 

all his intellectual exertions. A sympathetic nation joins in 
her sorrow for her illustrious dead.- 

Mr. Cox was one of my first acquaintances when I came to 
the extra session of the Forty-sixth Congress. I remember 
with pleasure now the warm welcome he gave me. I knew 
him well. His intellect was of a high order and his learning 
very great. He had, too, that kind of intellect which makes 
all feel and appreciate it. He combined with a high sense of 
the ludicrous a quick perception and a strong understanding. 
He was also a great student. When Atticus asked Cicero to 
recount the means by which he had achieved his marvelous 
success, the orator replied that he studied three years for the 
forum and practiced two years, during which he met Hortensius; 
that he was not satisfied with his own style, and that he traveled 
two years in the East to study and reform it; that during this 
entire seven years he hardly let a day escape him that he did 
not write something, memorize something, and compose some- 
thing. Mr. Cox, like the eloquent TuUy, was an untiring 
worker. I knew no man who could work more rapidh' or did 
work more constantly. He was gifted with rare ability to con- 
ceive beautiful and forcible thoughts and extraordinary eloquence 
to promulgate them. 

He loved his country with the fervor which should charac- 
terize a patriot whose ancestors had fought in the Revolution. 
His great-grandfather had drawn the sword of a captain in that 
glorious struggle and had sheathed the sword of a general. 
After the close of the conflict, realizing that — 

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, 
The pen is mightier than the sword, 

he participated in his country's councils as a member of Con- 
gress. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 75 

Ezekiel Cox, father of SAMUEL S. Cox, was also a member 
of the legislature of his State, where he won distinction. What 
his fathers fought for and established he maintained. His 
tongue and pen were both dedicated to the institutions of his 
country. The perpetuation of constitutional government was 
the aspiration of his youth, the aim of his most vigorous man- 
hood, and the solicitude of his declining years. The mad pas- 
sions of sectional hate never burned in his bosom; the unmanly 
utterance of sectional prejudice never polluted his tongue. 

Our flag was emblematic to him of one country and one people. 
The brightness of each star and the whiteness of each stripe 
told him of a great Government, where every State had a right 
to administer its domestic concerns in its own way, yet where 
all the States were cemented together in the bonds of constitu- 
tional union for the general welfare and the common good. 

He ever contended for the observance of the Constitution. 
He was always found in the ranks, or rather in the lead, of those 
who struggled to maintain the rights of man. He took high 
rank in whatever field of intellectual labor he entered. Whether 
we view him as student or journalist, as historian or statesman, 
he was the same — strong in intellect, eloquent in speech, warm 
in his friendships. He was gentle as the breeze to his friends, 
but dreadful as the storm to his antagonists. 

Mr. Speaker, when another century shall have passed away; 
when the State of his birth shall have attained 10,000,000 popu- 
lation and the city of his adoption shall have become the me- 
tropolis of the world, as it is now the metropolis of the continent; 
when this glorious Republic shall have a quarter of a billion of 
people and the student of history looks back to the first century of 
our national existence, wherever his mind lingers to revel in the 
delights of literature or wanders to the far-off land of Leonidas 



76 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Oliio^ on the 

and Lyciirgus, with the faithful diplomat, or studies statecraft in 
most eloquent appeals for free government, there will be found 
the foot-prints in history of Samuel Sullivan Cox. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. GROSVENOR, OF OHIO. 

Mr. Speaker: I come as a Representative from the State of 
Ohio to lay upon this bier the tribute of a personal friend and 
admirer of the late Samuel S. Cox. He was born and raised 
in Ohio. He was educated, in part, in the Ohio University, in 
the town of Athens, where I live, and he grew to mature man- 
hood in his native State. He was editor of a leading Demo- 
cratic paper published at Columbus, and as such won his first 
literary fame. At that early day he was a graceful and eloquent 
writer. 

Returning from his post as secretary of legation at Peru, he 
was elected to the Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, 
and Thirty-eighth Congresses from the State of Ohio, and held 
high position in the Democratic party as their representative in 
national conventions from that State. So it is proper that Ohio 
should claim a great interest in his fame and character. 

His father was a prominent merchant, residing in the Mus- 
kingum Valley, and introduced into the Ohio legislature the 
first bill looking to the improvement by the State of that 
splendid water-way. The only speech, it is said, that was ever 
made by the elder Cox, although long connected with politics, 
was made from the vantage-ground of a dry-goods box, on a 
street corner, in the light of a bonfire that had been kindled by 
the enthusiastic people in celebration of tire passage of the bill 
to improve the Muskingum River. In the last Congress in 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 77 

which the son served he aided, advised, and assisted to secure 
the complete establishment of a successful and valuable im- 
provement of the same river by the United States Congress. 

He never lost his interest in Ohio and Ohio afiFairs. Con- 
nected by blood and marriage with several prominent families 
in the State, he kept up his friendly interest in all the affairs of 
Ohio, and one of the remarkable phases of his mind was that 
he carried into all the ramifications of fifty years his memory of 
the families and people with whom he had associated in his 
boyhood. 

I shall not attempt, Mr. Speaker, to dwell at length upon the 
high qualities exhibited by our lamented friend in his long 
service in the House of Representatives. There are others 
here who knew him better, because they served longer with 
him. Coming here as I did in the very zenith of his power and 
influence in the House, I looked upon him as one of the most 
brilliant and capable men whom I had ever known. I never 
knew a man with such varied ability in debate. He was pos- 
sessed of a fine education, which he had kept alive by persistent 
application, constantly familiarizing himself with the literature 
of the country and the world. He preserved in all its brilliancy 
and freshness the splendid education he received in the schools, 
and on the floor of the House, in the heated debates, he utilized 
his knowledge with wonderful adaptation and marvelous ra- 
pidity of thought and action. 

When upon the floor of the House, in the full tide of debate, 
with all the sails of his wit, knowledge, and eloquence set, he 
was the most dangerous antagonist ever encountered by an 
opponent, in my estimation. The flashes of his wit flew like 
lightning, and always struck the object aimed at. He never 
failed to respond with a promptness that astounded his adver- 



78 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio., on the 

sary. It was at times like this that the marvelous resources of 
the man manifested themselves. He dwelt upon history, poetry, 
wit, sentiment, pathos, and eloquence, and all these varied re- 
sources came to his support, and falling into the martial array 
of his splendid abilities, he directed them all with the unerring 
hand of genius against his foe. 

He was seldom bitter, but always ready. He was seldom 
cruel to his adversary, but always incisive and prompt. He 
exhibited one of the great characteristics of his nature in the 
discharge of his duties in Congress. He was a man conspicu- 
ous for his kindliness of spirit. He was ready to help the 
weaker. No man ever appealed to him for kindly sympathy in 
vain. The younger or inexperienced member of Congress 
never applied to him for advice in regard to parliamentary pro- 
cedure that he did not patiently and willingly give it to him. 
No man ever asked him a favor as a personal accommodation, 
in the business of the House, if it were within the bounds of 
possibility, that he did not grant it. His battle for the letter- 
carriers, his strong advocacy of the interests of the life-saving 
stations, were the outgrowth of his kindly sympathy. He 
helped the weakest. His sympathies went out to the poor. 

He aided those who needed help, and not those who could 
help themselves. His mind was broad and comprehensive and 
responsive to the just and intelligent observation of the affairs 
of the whole country. It was often a marvel to me that, lead- 
ing the hurrying, pushing life that he did here, when question 
after question arose, varied ^n their scope, widely different in 
operation, affecting the remote sections of the nation with in- 
terests widely differing, he should be found ready armed and 
equipped for every emergency. 

As a writer he early achieved fame, as I have already said, 



Life and Character of Sanincl S. Cox. 79 

and it was in those lines of literatnre involving beautiful descrip- 
tions, pathetic illustration, and appealing to human nature that 
he distinguished himself. 

As the presiding officer of this House he brought to the dis- 
charge of his dut}- the same readiness of action, promptness of 
judgment, and consistency of conduct that he displayed upon 
the floor and in every other place. It was his ambition to 
be Speaker of the House. If he ever bewailed misforttine in 
politics, it was because he never attained that high position. 
If it had been his lot to be selected by his party associates as 
Speaker, it is my judgment that he would have made a career 
conspicuous among the conspicuous men who have occupied 
that exalted position. 

His mind was of the very type that makes it possible for a 
Speaker to be able to rule and yet be popular. He would have 
shown no partiality in his position to men or measures. He 
would not have availed himself of the power and patronage of 
his exalted position to punish his enemies, retard the growth of 
his rivals, or foster his personal ambitions. He would not 
have left the Speaker's chair with the unpleasant consciousness 
that he had gotten even with his enemies by leveling himself 
down to their level. He was a generous man. He was always 
ready to recognize ability where he saw it, and he saw it with an 
eye trained in the accuracy of discernment. 

He was tenacious of his political opinions. Once adopting 
as true a theory of politic. 1 action and propriety, he never fal- 
tered in his advocacy of it. For many years he occupied a posi- 
tion far in advance of the recognized leaders of his party upon 
the great question of the tariff, and he never hesitated to boldly 
proclaim his opinions. 

No matter that his party might deal in glittering generalities 



80 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio., on the 

in their platforms, he struck out straight from the shoulder. 
His flag was always flying; his opinions always put to the front. 
No man can say that he dodged an issue like that. It did not 
affect him unfavorably to call him a free-trader, for on more 
than one occasion he proclaimed that he gloried in the name. 

It was his honest belief in the wisdom and propriety of his 
position that made him bold to announce it ; and as with all 
men of original ideas and original thought, when they have 
by a process of thinking adopted a policy they believe in it 
and are bold to proclaim it and defend it, so it was with 
Cox. 

Possibly there was nothing in his career that was more an- 
noying to him than the public estimation that had grown up 
that he was a sort of a professional humorist, and with what 
opportunity I had I tried to study the man in this regard and to 
ascertain whether the wit, repartee, and humor that came bub- 
bling up from the inexhaustible resources of his mind were 
studied efforts or otherwise. Complaining that he was charac- 
terized as a humorist, was he studying the art nevertheless? 
It took but a very brief analysis of his character to serve the 
purpose. 

The bright things which he said and which have passed into 
permanent record were spontaneous and not prearranged. His 
wit was born at the moment. His repartee came rushing forth, 
suggested by his opponent. The very challenge produced the 
answer. The thought came as a flash of lightning. It was in- 
' spiration. It was naturally original with him, more naturally 
spontaneous with him than an\- other man of my acquaintance. 
Often and over again have I witnessed the .sharp-witted re- 
sponse to the challenge of some one, and the whole House was 
in a roar before the gentleman from New York seemed in the 



Life a)id Character of Samuel S. Cox. 81 

least to appreciate that he had said anything out of the common 
run of discourse. 

He was a man without malice. He fought hard and dealt 
heavy blows in a contest, but when the battle ceased there was 
no bitterness behind. He had statesmanship as well as poli- 
tics. He saw with unerring knowledge and judgment that the 
great Northwest was rapidly assuming vast political impor- 
tance ; that the demand for statehood of those splendid Territories 
could not be delayed or balked longer by political "jugglery;" 
that the star of empire had taken its way to the West, and that 
the result was to be new States. 

No party consideration could limit and destroy his accuracy 
of vision or the patriotism of his action. Following as a true 
party man the leadership of his party to a certain point, he 
boldly gave notice that while the bill was in the House he 
would follow the caucus demand, but if the Senate took a 
broader view, a more patriotic view, a view more in accordance 
with his judgment, he should insist that his party yield to that 
suggestion, and failing or refusing that he would follow his 
party no further. His action in that behalf was recognized b\- 
the people of those Territories, and when he went to visit them 
they received him with open arms and accorded to him assur- 
ances of a generous recognition of the part he had taken in 
their behalf I would that it might have been ordained that he 
should live to see with his own eyes, on the 4th of July next, 
the flag of his beloved country unfurled in her official places 
with her added stars, for the creation of which he so faithfully 
struggled. 

In his appreciation of the growth of the West and his pride 
in the manifest destiny of that great section of the country was 
developed a prominent trait in his character. Born and edu- 
H. Mis. 243 6 



82 Address of Mr. Groszenor, of Ohio, on the 

cated in Ohio, then a younger and newer State, he grew to an 
appreciation of the wants of a growing, thriving, prosperous, 
agricultural free country. Had he remained in the West he 
would have been, in my judgment, a greater man. I do not 
believe that the city constituency that he so long represented 
after he left Ohio was calculated to bring him into so close 
relations to the thought of the people as would have been con- 
tact with the Western constituency, and it was remarkable to 
observe how in the career of this man his early inspirations, his 
early ambitions, his early judgment of men and things, adhered 
to him in after life. Circumscribed b>- the city constituency, 
not one-tenth part of whom he knew, he )et became the repre- 
sentative in all things of the great people with whom he had 
grown up. It is not a disparagement to his later constituency 
that it was an environment rather than an inspiration to the gal- 
lant young American whom they selected as their represent- 
ative. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, the long column of the dead pass in re- 
view before us of the Fifty-first Congress— Cox, Nutting, and 
Wilber, Laird, Gay, and Kelley, Randall, Burnes, and Town- 
shend — nine have gone forth, and we are here to finish as well as 
we can the work that is set before us. 

I have no taste or talent for philosophy on an occasion like 
this. When a man like Mr. Cox, in the very zenith of his in- 
tellectual power and in the very heyday of his usefulness, passes 
away, we can not, as we consider his character and the mystery 
into which he has gone, hesitate to believe that somewhere, in 
some other condition of existence, we shall meet again. I do 
not believe that the creation of man is such a failure as we 
would be compelled to believe if we thought these nine com- 
rades of ours had been so suddenly and untimely transferred 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 83 

from this sphere of existence, to be heard of, to live, no more 
forever. 

I shall cherish the virtues of those men. I shall, so far as 
my ability goes, emulate the example of those men; and I shall 
trust that in a better world, at a future time, I shall know the 
mystery, solve the problem, and understand that it is the devel- 
opment of a wise provision of the Creator that this should be 
bvit the training school and death the open door through which 
we shall pass to a better world beyond. 



Address of Mr, Outhwaite, of Ohio. 

Mr. Speaker: It seems peculiarly appropriate that I should 
participate in these ceremonies to commemorate the virtues of 
Samuel Sullivan Cox, coming here as a Representative from 
the cit)' whence he first came as such and from the district 
which first honored him and itself by recognizing his abilities 
and requiring his services in Congress. In a large portion of 
this district his name is almost a household word, his fame is 
treasured with affectionate pride, and his loss mourned as a per- 
sonal bereavement. In all that I may say to extol him there 
will be no more than the utterance of the sentiments of his 
constituents. 

My youth was spent in the town where he was born, and my 
earliest recollection of a political meeting is of the one at which 
he spoke in his native city just after his first nomination for 
Congress. I shall not now attempt to portray the impressions of 
that delightful hour, but must say that from that time on the 
course and career of the speaker has held my admiring atten- 



84 Address of Mr. Outhivaite., of Ohio., on the 

tioii. I most deeply regret that I am not able to properlj- review 
his life and character, his achievements and excellences. 

Samuel Sullivan Cox was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on the 
30th of vSeptember, 1824; he died on the loth of September, 
1889, in the very fullness of his perfect manhood and before his 
years, through any waning of strength or decay, had become 
"but labor and sorrow." His life had been complete and rich. 
Honors and places had been his to accept or refuse, and we can 
not doubt that other honors and other places awaited him. 

In preparing even for a slight review of such a life, in regard- 
ing the steady march of events from childhood to youth, from 
youth to manhood, and the development of inherent character 
which kept pace with or even outstripped waiting circumstances, 
one sees how the man did but fulfill the promise of the boy. 

If, then, we are to attain to any real understanding of this 
character, its forming cau.seS and inherited tendencies; if we 
are to come to any appreciative knowledge of this life, so preg- 
nant of early promise, so rich in mature fruition; if youths are 
to be benefited by the example of this brilliant boyhood or 
genealogy to be advanced towards a science, the early life of 
Samuel Sullivan Cox must not be passed over in silence, nor 
can reference to his ancestry be omitted. 

He was a many-sided man, broad, brave, and good; his aspi- 
rations were of the loftiest; he was indefatigable in the pursuit 
of knowledge; his overflowing sense of humor never led him to 
any toleration of the ignoble or base; his whole nature turned 
towards the uoble, the pure, the true. Investigation shows 
that his ancestry possessed all the qualities that "were found com- 
pact in his broad and fertile brain. To say this does not detract 
from his originality or from his acquirements by patient stud\- 
and deep research, but only gives the world a striking proof of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 85 

what study and training can accomplish in the development of 
such qualities of mind, heart, and soul. 

That "the child is father to the man" is nowhere more 
charmingly and conclusively illustrated than by the reminis- 
cences of those who knew and loved S. S. Cox in his early 
childhood and youth. Then, as in mature life, he was bright, 
sunny, genial, fond of fun, sparkling with wit, always truthful, 
fearless, and generous, never hesitating to confess a fault of his 
own and ever ready to defend the weak and oppressed. 

He was always a bright scholar, always ready to help any 
who lagged behind him in the race for learning. Indeed, a 
cousin relates how he was taught his letters by this boy, who, 
having reached the mature age of six, desired to put his play- 
mate, six months vounger, on a level with his own advance- 
ment. 

Much of his time in early childhood was spent in reading 
books of travel, and very early he told his mother that he was 
going to visit the Holy Land; that he should go to Russia; 
that he should see the Sultan and the minarets of Constanti- 
nople, and that he was going to the North Pole, or near enough 
to it to see the sun go round without setting. All these dreams 
of his youth were fulfilled, and his graphic descriptions of 
these very trips are familiar in the books he has written. 

One of his earliest teachers was Rev. George Sedgwick, of 
Zanesville. Among the scholars in this school were three 
whose character even then gave promise of future greatness, a 
promise abundantly fulfilled. The three were afterwards known 
to the world as Rev. Dr. Aschmore, for many years a faithful 
and eminent Baptist missionary in China; the late Justice 
Woods, of the United States Supreme Court, and Samuel 
Sullivan Cox. 



86 Address of Mr. Outhwaiie, of Ohio, oil the 

He was prepared for the Ohio University, at Athens, under 
Professor Howe, a well known and somewhat distinguished 
educator in those early days. The old academy which he at- 
tended in Zanesville was situated on Market street, on the 
present site of Duvall's machine shops. Professor Howe was 
a man of learning and cultivation. 

Samuel was always full of his boyish pranks, even venturing 
sometimes to play tricks on his dignified father, for which it is 
said that his eldest brother, Thomas, used not infrequently to 
receive the reproof and punishment rather than betray the real 
culprit, to whom his self-sacrifice would be all unknown. 

But he was a diligent and enthusiastic student, who won 
and kept a high place among his classmates. Before he had 
passed out of boyhood he was appointed deputy to his father, 
who was then serving as clerk of the supreme court and of the 
court of common pleas. Even at this early age he was so thor- 
oughly conversant with all the business of the office that a great 
part of it was safely intrusted to him. 

S. S. Cox made a brilliant beginning in his university course 
at Athens, and would doubtless have been graduated there but 
for a rebellion among the students, caused by what they consid- 
ered an arbitrary ruling on the part of President McGuff"y in re- 
gard to one of their number, which resulted in the withdrawal 
from the college of the senior class in a body. 

During his time at Athens a lawsuit between the college and 
the town was decided in favor of the latter, much to the dis- 
pleasure of the students. Party spirit ran high, and the divis- 
ion lines were as marked as in fights between " townsmen and 
gownsmen" in an English university town. A celebration 
most distasteful to the college was decided on; a bonfire was to 
be built, speeches made, and a cannon fired. The bonfire 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 87 

blazed, the speeches were made, but the boom of the cannon 
was not heard, the " great- gun " of the town, a 6-pounder, 
having been prudently spiked the night before by a daring col- 
lege boy. It was not known till long after that the youth who 
so effectually silenced the voice of the cannon for that and for 
many succeeding nights was S. S. Cox. 

At Brown University, which he entered after leaving Athens, 
and where he studied under Dr. Wayland, he carried off the 
highest prizes in history, literary criticism, and the classics, 
and in what was perhaps even then his favorite study, political 
economy, the not inconsiderate prizes which he received for 
these achievements materially assisting in his support while he 
pursued his college course. 

His study of the law was zealous, thorough, and comprehen- 
sive, and he came to the bar well equipped to take a high place 
in this profession. He chose the capital city of Ohio as his 
field of practice; but not long after making his home there he 
became editor of the Ohio Statesman, then, in fact, the journal 
of his party in the State. Soon his marked ability as a jour- 
nalist and as a political writer gave him a national reputation, 
and in 1855 he was appointed by President Pierce secretary of 
the legation in Peru. Having returned home in 1856, he was 
elected as a Representative in Congress from the Columbus 
district. 

He was then continued in Congress four consecutive terms, 
and was here participating in the momentous legislation imme- 
diately preceding the civil war and during three eventful years 
of it. Early in his career he took a high place in the councils 
of his party. Three times he was sent as a delegate to the 
national Democratic convention and assisted materially in 
framing the declaration of its policy upon two occasions. He 



88 Address of Mr. Outhivaitc, of Ohio, on the 

left Ohio to live in New York City in 1866, and was soon again 
sent to Congress, and was returned for four consecutive terms. 
In 1872 he was defeated as candidate at large for the State of 
New York, but was subsequently elected to the same Congress 
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Brooks. From 
that time he was almost continuously a Representative in Con- 
gress from the great city. 

Appointed minister to Turkey in 1885, he remained at that 
honorable post but little over a year, and returning to the me- 
tropolis he was at once elected to fill a vacancy, and was returned 
as the member from the Ninth district of New York to the Fifty- 
first Congress. As such he died, and we are here to-day to 
honor his memory. A busy life closed at the very zenith of its 
usefulness. For nearly a third of a century, with brief inter- 
missions, he has been a familiar figure here. He has left the 
impress of his heart and mind upon the legislation of his coun- 
try to an extent equaled by few of his contemporaries. He was 
always earnest, full of courage, and true to his convictions of 
duty. Having determined for himself what courSe was right, 
he firmly adhered to it, leaving the consequences to take care 
of themselves or to be wisely controlled thereafter. 

In his dedication to his constituents in Ohio of his book en- 
titled Eight Years in Congress, published in 1865, he says: 

I voted to avert the impending war by every measure of adjustment; 
and when war came, by my votes for money and men, I aided the Admin- 
istration in maintaining the Federal authority over the insurgent States. 
Sustained by you, I supported every measure which was constitutional 
and expedient to crush a rebellion. At the same time, I have freely chal- 
lenged the conduct of the Administration in the use of the means com- 
mitted to it by a devoted people. Believing that a proper use of such 
means would bring peace and union, and believing in no peace as perma- 
nent unless It were wedded to the Union in love and contentmeni, I have 
omitted no opportunity to forward these objects. 



Life and Cliaractcr of Samuel S. Cox. 89 

There is the chart by which he was guided in those tempest- 
uous times. No truer patriot ever trod the floor of this Chamber. 
Another marked characteristic of the man was his sympathy 
for those in danger, difficulty, or distress. His efforts in behalf 
of the Life-Saving Service were of immeasurable value, both 
for those whose lives were imperiled upon the deep along our 
ocean coasts and those whose rescuers have been stationed there 
largely through his efforts to render needful aid. 

The struggles of labor always moved his heart. Where leg- 
islation could ameliorate them he became a ready champion, 
and more than one large body of the Government's emploj'^s 
gratefully recall his services for their welfare. 

I will not undertake to comment upon his many other valua- 
ble services, they are so numerous. He was ever a zealous 
advocate of such measures as he thought would extend and in- 
crease the glory of his country. The enthusiasm of this senti- 
ment caused him to champion with fervor the admission of all 
the Territories seeking statehood in the Fiftieth Congress. The 
two Dakotas, Washington, and Montana, should ever honor his 
name. They owe him more than a passing tribute of praise. 
While he was always full of work, either upon literary matters 
or affairs of state, Mr. Cox was ever ready to give time and 
attention to any who called on him for advice or assistance. 
Almost daily other members came to him for information, 
counsel, or assistance, which he gave with pleasure. 

He often became so much interested in matters for younger 
or less experienced members as to immediately take upon him- 
self the duty of chief advocate or defender of the cause. His 
varied and unfailing store of information, his long experience 
as a parliamentarian, and his tact and quickness as a debater 
made him a valuable ally. Even during the last Congress, 



90 Address of Mr. Outhivaitc, of Ohio., on the 

twent)--five years since he had been a citizen of Ohio, he received 
letters from his old constituents there requestino^ his help, and 
the}' were attended to. He will long be cherished among them 
for— 

That best portion of a good man's life, 
His little, nameless, unremembered acts 
Of kindness and of love. 

Turning again to the grave characteristics of the man, we 
must say of Mr. Cox that he was a scholar for the love of learn- 
ing, who never abated the zeal of his study until he had mas- 
tered the subject under investigation. He was a citizen whose 
wide travel in foreign lands only strengthened his aiFection for 
his own country and intensified his faith in the wisdom and 
beneficence of her institutions. Although a partisan from pro- 
found convictions, he was ever ready to yield to the apparently 
superior demands of progress or of patriotism, and "always 
strove to make his party conservative of his country." 

A statesman largely gifted with practical legislative power, 
free from the bigotry of sectionalism, abounding in general 
knowledge of the wants, interests, and aspirations of the people 
of every part of this land, and of all sorts and conditions of 
men, and perfectly familiar with the fundamental principles of 
this Government, he was the active promoter of all good causes 
before Congress, a constant, vigilant, and determined defender 
of the harmony of the constitutional relation between the Fed- 
eral Union and the States, and the watchful and resolute 
antagonist of all attempts at encroachments upon the reserved 
rights of the people. 

While Mr. Cox was one of the foremost political economists 
of the country, a statesman familiar with public affairs and 
grave international questions, and a student of social problems, 
he has found time to ornament American literature with many 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 91 

bright pages, and produce some delightful books of travel, and 
has contributed handsomely to the political history of recent 
times. His speeches in the House and upon the stump have 
always given pleasure as well as afforded instruction. "Wit, 
eloquence, and poesy" were ready at his command. No debate 
in which he participated ever languished into dull mediocrity. 
Rarely gifted by nature, he had strengthened his powers and 
enlarged their scope by the discipline and culture which educa- 
tion gives. He was a tireless worker, and never depended upon 
his stored force when there was an opportunity to acquire more 
by special preparation. He once gave this explanation of his 
ability to accomplish so much: 

I began my life in a county clerk's office, and I there learned good 
business habits. My college days were spent at Brown University under 
Dr. Wayland, the man who wrote the Political Economy. Dr. Wayland 
was a great advocate of exhaustive-thought analysis, and he made his 
students analyze everything they took up. Under him I learned analytic 
thinking, and this I found of great advantage to myself in after years. 
When I began a debate on the floor of this House I saw the end of my 
speech before I said the first word; everything fitted itself to its proper 
place, and I did not repeat, as is often done. When I studied Black- 
stone, after leaving college, by the aid of my training in analysis I found 
that I could repeat almost the whole of it in my own language, and since 
then, throughout the whole of my life, I have found analysis of the great- 
est advantage. 

His friend and eulogist, the Hon. Proctor Knott, among many 
other good things, said of him: 

He realized that labor was the only talisman of success. He ate no 
idle bread. He flung away no priceless moment. In his boyhood, as in 
his mature age, he was a prodigy of intellectual activity, a miracle of 
mental energy. 

Therein is one of the secrets of his great success. Another 
was his genial temperament and lovable disposition. He won 



92 Address of Mr. OiitlnvnitL\ of Ohio, o)i the 

the hearts of men, whether in the fields of his first constituency 
or the rush and bustle of the great metropolis. Even casual 
acquaintances felt drawn to him by a sense of companionship. 

His friendships were numberless and unrestricted by social 
standing- or part)' ties. With unbounded faith in the integrity 
and good sense of the people, he won their confidence and ne\'er 
betrayed the trust. Passing through the years of trying ordeals 
and great temptations to public men, no breath of suspicion 
ever whispered a charge against his private character and "not 
a stain or speck ever stuck to his official garments." 

Ex-President Cleveland, at the memorial exercises at Cooper 
Union, on October lo, .said to his constituents: 

I shall not, however, forbear mentioning the fact that your late Repre- 
sentative, in all his public career and in all his relations to legislation, was 
never actuated by a corrupt or selfish interest. His zeal was born of pub- 
lic spirit and the motive of his labor was the public good. 

The life of one of whom such things may so truthfully be 
said is a rich heritage for his country. L,et American youths 
treasure the example. 

My attention has been called to an article published in the 
Independent some time ago, which I shall embody in my re- 
marks. It is entitled — 

FROM GAV TO GRAVE THE HON. S. S. COX's EARLY RELIGIOUS EXPERI- 
ENCES, RELATED BY HIMSELF. 

The Culbertsons, Hoges, Zanes, Mclntires, Youngs, ct alii, who, before 
this century began, blazed their way over the hills of Ohio, while with 
rifle and compass they made their roads through the State — by Federal 
grants of land and propagandist energy — were not merely Presbyterian 
and Methodist household words, but household companions of my grand- 
parents and parents. 

Father David Young, who married the widow of John Mclntire, one 
of the founders of Zanesville, was to me a being of another world and of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 93 

antique mold and manner. His Druid like beard and aspect, his quaint 
ways and exclusive manners, and his natural humor and eloquence made 
him seem the ideal of a presiding pioneer elder. In my boyhood, how- 
ever, he preached but seldom, taking turns, in the absence of the stated 
minister, with an uncle, Samuel J. Cox, in the old frame church at the in- 
tersection of Second and Main streets. 

There was not a little poignancy in my heart when I saw the old 
church where I had so often worshiped, or rather attended, razed to the 
ground. Was it not there I attended my first' Sunday school ? There it 
was that I learned my Bible verses and received my red and blue tickets 
for proficiency. There it was that I accomplished the memorable task 
of reciting all of St. Paul to the Romans, under the gentle guidance of 
the Rev. William P. Strickland, then a clerk in my uncle's post-office, and 
since a shining light and ready writer in the church. 

It was there I used to hear Joseph Trimble, when he brought his first- 
fruits of oratory to the altar. It was there in that old southwest corner, 
where the " aniens " were most pronounced, that I realized in my child- 
ish fashion that I was unregenerate and sinful. It was from thence that 
I went to my home convicted, and entered the closet to cast off my little 
burden of sins and woes with an infantile orison ; alas, only to be discov- 
ered by a vigilant mother, who had all too frequently missed her plum 
preserves and lump sugar, to be sent to bed with all my imperfections on 
my head unhealed, sore, and not a little revengeful. 

But this old frame haunt of Methodist piety had its time to fall. 
Along with it went the old coal-scuttle bonnets of the elderly Quakerly 
women and many plain and beautiful customs of the early church. 

A brick " meeting-house " of larger dimensions and more pretension was 
to be erected. My grandfather was on the building connmittee, and, in 
absence of a better workman, it was my awkward hand which marked 
out upon the stone the awkward glyphics which designate the sect and 
date the time of erection. 

Happy Arcadian days! Eheu ! How they have glided into theabyss and 
rearward of time. I only recur to them to show the pious readers of the 
Independent how a Democrat " experienced'' religion, and what a fall; 
in their opinion, he has had by reason of his unregenerate politics. 

Those early memories were cut in durable stone. Tarnished by world- 
liness, dusted with the activities of life, they have pursued me through 
the various vicissitudes of studious professional, literary, and political life. 
They became the nucleus of studies in college ; they were coats of mail in 



94 Address of Mr. Oiillncaitc, of Ohio, on the 

the struggles against selfishness and skepticism ; in fine, they prefigured 
and preordained my choice of spiritual belief as against the delusive 
sophistries of new philosophers and mere material science. They have 
enabled me, in following and studying the physical advancement of the 
past quarter of a century, to perceive in all the atoms, forms, and forces 
of nature and the phenomena of mind, the truth and benignity of the 
great scheme of human redemption, which is founded on the veracity of 
Christ, and becomes, with lapsing years, more beautiful with the white 
radiance of an ennobling spirituality. 

In this intellectual stability, upon the rock of truth, is there not some 
compensation for the shortcomings of our daily conduct ? Is this denied 
by the purist? Will he abide no deflection from the mixed right hne of 
known duty 1 Ah ! it is much to know the line, even if one can not 
always walk to it lineally and uprightly. 

Mr. Cox, of the National Museum, has placed in my hands 
the following interesting statement of incidents in the lives of 
the American ancestry of the Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox: 

Thomas Cox, the great-great-great-grandfather of Samuel Sullivan 
Cox, was one of the twenty-four original proprietors of the province of 
East New Jersey. He, with Ehzabeth, his wife, came from the north of 
England and settled in Upper Freehold Township in 1670. 

James Cox, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth, was born in Monmouth 
County in 1672, and died in 1750, at the age of seventy-eight. He was 
a large land-holder, and highly respected in the community in which he 
lived. His estate, which comprised some of the most valuable lands in 
the colony, was called, on account of its fertility, " Cream Ridge," a 
name which still survives in the neighborhood post-office. 

Anne, the wife of James Cox, was born in 1670 and died in 1747, at 
the age of seventy-seven. They were buried in the family burial-ground 
upon the' estate. 

Joseph Cox, the son of James and Anne, was born in 1713, and lived 
to be eighty-eight years old, dying in 1801. 

Mary, his wife, daughter of Thomas Mount, of Shrewsbury, was born 
in 17 15, and died in the year 1800, at the age of eighty-five. 

Joseph Cox was a farmer in easy circumstances, and a man of strong 
mind and unblemished character. It is said of him that he always con- 
tended for the equal rights of man ; that he was opposed to all oppres- 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. ' 95 

sion and injustice; that he honored no man because he was rich, despised 
no man because he was poor, that he was never ashamed of honest 
labor, and readily put his hand to any work to be done on his farm. 

Mary, his wife, was remarkable even in her old age for her "fine form 
and countenance. " In their latter years this venerable couple lived in 
one end of their large, old house in Upper Freehold, while James Cox, 
their ninth child, with his numerous family, occupied the other part. A 
son of James Cox, when an old man, used to speak of the pleasant hours 
he spent in the rooms of his grandparents in the old home, and made 
special mention of the hours the venerable man used to spend reading the 
Bible aloud to his aged wife. 

James Cox, who occupied the old homestead in Freehold with his 
parents, was the grandfather of Samuel Sullivan Cox. As a young man 
he was remarkable for both mental and physical vigor and activity. 

He married Ann Potts, of Burlington, N. J., in February, 1776. To 
his country's call for soldiers James Cox did not say, like the man bidden 
to the Gospel feast, "I have married a wife, and therefore I can not 
come." He promptly joined a volunteer company, of which he was 
made first lieutenant, and which he generally commanded. He was in 
several engagements, notably at Germantown and Monmouth, which lat- 
ter battle was fought within a few miles of his home. 

Even in the stirring days of the Revolution James Cox was distin- 
guished as an earnest patriot, so earnest, indeed, as to rouse an enmity, 
which even the return of peace did not remove, in a neighboring family 
who had espoused the British cause. After the close of the war, when at 
work one day in a field near the house of this family, he discovered it to 
be on fire. He at once hastened to tlie spot, accompanied by the man 
who was at work with him, and by great exertion, and at the risk of his 
life, extinguished the flames. This action excited lively expressions of 
gratitude, and a confession that this same family had often attempted to 
have his house burned during the war. But in spite of this brave and 
generous act no permanent reconciliation took place. James Cox still 
looked upon this family as the enemies of his country and they regarded 
him as a rebel against their king. 

After the Revolution, James Cox was made a major of militia, and was 
later elected brigadier-general of the Monmouth brigade by the legisla- 
ture. He was early called to various offices of trust in his township, such 
as assessor, clerk, etc. 

In 1800 he was prevailed upon to become a candidate for the State 



96 Address of Mr. Outhwaiie, o/ Ohio, on the 

legislature. He was elected in 1801, and held his seat in the General 
Assembly for several years. He was elected speaker in his third year, 
and continued in this office as long as lie was in the assembly. He was 
elected to Congress in i8o8; died suddenly of apoplexy in 1810, when 
only fifty-seven years old. 

James Cox was known as an earnest Christian ; he was exceedingly 
generous and hospitable, so much so, indeed, as to prevent any great ac- 
cumulation of property; his conversation is spoken of as having been ex- 
tremely instructive, abounding in striking anecdotes, with a rich spice of 
wit and humor. He was very popular among his neighbors, by whom it 
was related that he never asked any person to vote for him, and that 
from the time of his nomination till after election he scarcely ever left his 
own farm. In appearance and manners he was dignified and command- 
ing, and he was a geneial favorite with both political parties. 

Anne, the wife of General James Cox, and hence the grandmother of 
Samuel Sullivan Cox, was the daughter of Amy, the youngest child of 
Joseph Borden, the founder of Bordentown, N. J. 

She came of pioneer stock on both sides, being the great-granddaughter 
of Thomas Potts, who, with his wife and children, came to this country 
in 1678, in the Shield, the first ship that ever dropped anchor before 
Burlington, N. J., the dropping anchor being accomplished this time 
.by mooring the ship to a tree with a rope, while the passengers went 
ashore the next morning on the ice, so hard and suddenly had the river 
frozen. 

Smith, in his History of New Jersey, relates how on the voyage up the 
river the S/i 1 M v/ent so near the bold shore at Coaquanock, the Indian 
name of the place where Philadelphia now stands, that part of her rigging 
struck the trees, some one on board remarking at the time that that was 
a fine site for a town. 

Anne Potts Cox is remembered as a devoted Christian and an excellent 
mother to her thirteen children. She is spoken of by one who knew her 
well as "an almost peerless woman." Going on a visit to one of her 
children, when fifty-eight years old, she was drowned in the Delaware by 
the overturning of the packet-boat in which she was passenger. The 
simple inscription on her tombstone, which says, " Few lived more be- 
loved, or died more lamented, " gives a correct epitome of her character. 

Ezekiel Taylor Cox, the father of Samuel Sullivan, was one of thir- 
teen children; he was born in 1795, and 'noved from New Jersey to 
Zanesville, Ohio, early in the century. His wife was the daughter of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 97 

Judge Samuel Sullivan, of Zanesville. From this union there sprang 
thirteen children, Samuel Sullivan Cox being the second son. 

Ezekiel Cox became the publisher and editor of the Muskingum Mes- 
senger in r8i8, and afterwards had two ot his brothers associated with 
him in this enterprise. Later, he and his son Alexander became editors 
and proprietors of the Zanesville Gazette. He was for ten years recorder 
for the county, and at the time of the birth of his son, Samuel Sullivan, 
was clerk of the supreme court, which position he held for eight years. He 
was afterwards State senator. As a public officer he was ever accounted 
prompt, accurate, and trustworthy. 

At the time of his death a leading paper of Zanesville spoke of him 
as a pioneer citizen and an early and constant friend of that place, where 
his name will long be remembered with honor, whether he be considered 
as an adventurous printer and editor, combating with untried difficulties 
in the wilderness of Ohio; as a clear, technical, and accurate writer, or 
as a faithful, well informed, and attentive clerk of the court, courteous 
alike to judges, jurors, witnesses, suitors, and lawyers; or as a Christian 
man of just views and upright conduct. 

Judge Samuel Sullivan, grandfather on his mother's side of Samuel 
Sullivan Cox, was a native of Delaware and one of the pioneer settlers 
of the " Northwest Territory," to which he went with his family in 1804, 
by wagon, over the difficult roads across the Alleghanies. He had early 
foretold the making of a great State out of the Northwest Territory, and 
he lived to aid in the fulfillment of his vision. 

Judge Sullivan never sought office, but many positions of trust and 
confidence were conferred upon him. He was State senator, and in 182 1, 
a time when the affairs of the treasury were in utter confusion, he was 
elected State treasurer. The amount of bond for this office was fixed by 
the governor at $140,000, then considered an exorbitant sum, one totally 
unprecedented in the affairs of the State, making an application to com- 
parative strangers for the purpose of securing bondsmen a matter of great 
delicacy. 

Understanding the embarrassment under which Judge Sullivan labored, 
General Harrison, who was then also a member of the State senate, 
although he had voted for Judge Trimble, the opposing candidate, came 
forward with characteristic magnanimity and offered to head the list, 
with the remark that, " as he was rated at $200,000, he supposed the 
governor would not object to him as one." Judge Sullivan, however, 
declined this generous offer, unless the bond should be previously signed 
H. Mis. 243 7 



98 Address of Mr. Outhzvaite., of Ohio., on the 

by his old acquaintances in Muskingum. When he returned to Columbus 
from Zanesville the long list of responsible sureties obtained in a few 
hours induced the pleasant remark from General Harrison that " there 
must have been a town meeting to have furnished so many names hi so 
short a time." 

Judge Sullivan's business habits were prompt, exact, and methodical; 
his manners reserved and dignified, but his familiar friends knew him as 
generous, gentle, and tender, a man with the most delicate perception of 
the beautiful, and a constant longing in the midst of business cares for a 
closer intimacy with nature. He looked upon the kindred pursuits of 
agriculture and horticulture as not only the most honorable, but the most 
interesting occupation to which a man of leisure and means could give 
his time. As an illustration of this feeling, after becoming what might be 
called an old man, he planted three orchards, and one of them mostly 
with his own hands after he had reached his seventy-fifth year, saying, 
almost in the words of Cicero's Jiligens agrtcola, " I do not plant for my- 
self, but somebody will reap the benefit of my work." 

The mother of Samukl Sullivan Cox was born in Philadelphia in 
1801, and consequently was but little more than an infant when the family 
emigrated across the mountains to the wilds of the \\'est. When her 
father finally settled in Zanesville in 1808 the town was almost in the 
wilderness, and Mrs. Cox in her old age used frequently to speak of play- 
ing with the Indian children thereabouts, the woods and the rocks, fes- 
tooned with wild grape vines where the rivers meet, near what is now the 
west end of Main street, being a favorite resort. Such were some of the 
memories of this one of the pioneer mothers of the great Northwest. 

Mrs. Cox lived to be over eighty-four years old. She saw children, 
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren gathered about her, and among 
the group none gave her more dutiful and loving care than her illustrious 
son, Samuel Sullivan. When told almost in her last days that he had 
been ajipointed minister to the Turkish Empire, in words of motherly 
self-forgetfulness she said, " If the office pleases him, it pleases me to have 
him go." 

We all know how this son, before starting on his mission, was called to 
stand beside the death-bed of this reverend and beloved mother, which 
he reached, to use his own tender words, " in time to receive her con- 
scious blessing." 

In this connection I will read a letter from the new minister 
to Turkey to an old friend in Baltimore, Mr. John T. Ford : 



Life and Character o/Satnuel S. Cox. 99 

Zanesville, Ohio, April t^, 1885. 
Mv Dear Friend: Your letter was handed to me, with others on 
congratulation, just as I was leaving Washington on the saddest journey 
of my life. 

I reached here in time to receive the conscious blessing of my mother 
on her dying bed. "God unloosed her weary star " so peacefully that 
it seemed like the unrippled calm of a lake reflecting a serene and cloud- 
less heaven. I could not have gone on my mission abroad with such a 
dear one in life at home. In one sense I may now go without " drag- 
ging at each remove a lengthening chain of filial fear." 

This loss of my mother is the greatest atfliction I ever knew. I can 
speak freely to you, my friend of friends, about it. It is thirty years since 
we met in Colonel Medary's old Statesman building at Columbus, when 
I was a young editor, and how much have we seen in the " three decades " 
since. That reminds me of the volume I am writing and publishing. It 
is baptized "The Three Decades of Federal Legislation; or Union, Dis- 
union, and Reunion." What these terms imply, you, my friend, have had 
reason to know in some personal ways, as to which you had my sympa- 
thy. I have endeavored in this volume to show the rise of the Republi- 
can party in 1855 ^"d its downfall in 1885. It ends with the inaugura- 
tion of a President who will endeavor to avoid the excesses which gave 
our country so much unrest, so much sanguinary experience, so much to 
make man distrust the capacity of human nature for self-government. 

Thank God, we have lived to see, in measureless content, the old party 
of our love in the ascendant. My work teaches the philosophy of the 
greatest conflict and strings upon principles which are enduring the facts 
in logical, if not chronological relation, which illustrate the principles of 
of the good old cause. But it is hard to write of these things when so 
great a calamity hangs over my spirit. My mother was more to me than 
words can tell She is one of the bonds that bind me to Maryland. 
" How ? " you ask. Thus : My grandfather, my mother's father, was 
Judge Samuel Sullivan. He came to Ohio in 1804 from New Castle, 
Del. His grandfather came over with Lord Baltimore. 

I have heard my grandfather say that he remembered his grandmother 
counting her beads. These Quaker-Methodists of northern Delaware 
and early Ohio, when they emigrated to Ohio, were three generations 
before devout Catholics. But the change of faith never swerved the an- 
cestral integrity. My mother's father. Judge Sullivan — whose name I 



100 Address of Mr. Oidhzvaite, of Ohio^ on tlic 

bear — was selected as the trustworthy senator for the office of State treas- 
urer in 1818, when the treasury had been despoiled, and on his bond was 
every member of the legislature. This is one of the incidents I love to 
recall, and as I laid my blessed mother away to-day I feel an honest 
pride in her honest ancestry which compensates for many poignancies. 
But why recall all this to you, except that by sharing our thoughts and 
sorrows our old-time friendship may have newer and brighter links for 
the future vicissitudes of life ? 

You and others wonder why I leave a prominent place in Congress for a 
mission to Turkey. Well, first, many things tended to make me feel that 
I lagged somewhat superfluous on that stage. My faculties and qualities, 
such as they are, never were in better condition ; and the equipment of a 
quarter of a century for the work of debate, of committee, and legislation 
was as nearly rounded on every theme as a sturdy and stern sense of 
duty could make it. 

But the advent of new men, as is natural, has pushed me to the rear, 
so that while abreast if not ahead of my party on most themes, I was 
not able even to command my old and favorite foreign committeeship, or 
my former Smithsonian regentship, always accorded to me even by Re- 
publicans, besides so much work in Congress and no result — the rolling, 
rolling, rolling up of the stones which rolled down "with a resulting 
bound," the foolish modes and rules, which few in control cared little to 
correct — all this and more made me think it was high time to seek the 
land of sleep and rest on the banks of the Bosporus. Besides, without 
the intervention of any one, save a kind word from a Missouri and Ten- 
nessee member, this oriental compliment came to me directly, gracefully, 
and spontaneously from the President alone. The Senate gave me a con- 
firmation quite complimentary without referring it ; and these facts, to- 
gether with my pleasant reminiscences of the happy days spent in the 
olden capital of the Greek Empire (upon two visits to the Orient), were 
predominating reasons why I propose to have a respite in the land of the 
Ottoman. 

But will it be a respite ? Is not the old capital of eastern empire still, 
as ever, the nucleus of intrigue, diplomacy, and contention ? Are not the 
eagles gathered over the hills of the Bosporus? Is not Afghanistan found 
via Constantinople? Is not the Sultan the Caliph ? and is not the head 
of the ninety millions of Moslems in Europe, Asia, and Africa concerned 
about the Jehad and its avatar, El Mahdi? What scenes may not be 
witnessed— safely — under our flag from the heights above the Golden 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 101 

Horn within the next four years! Besides, I have a great fancy for the 
Orient and for the Sultan; he bears himself nobly. 

I once wrote of him in my Orient Sunbeams, which you may read at 
length, as a monarch for whom I had an enthusiasm — "a king every 
inch," without any dramatic ostentations. You will understand that 
better than most men. I express my admiration for his individuality and 
ability, his self-reliance and inborn dignity. This preconception and pre- 
e.xpression ought to give me grace in his sight, after oriental methods, and 
enable me to be useful to our country and its commerce in case great 
emergencies eventuate out of the oriental imbroglio. I suppose I must 
prepare for new scenes; I already bid them at a distance hail. But go 
where I may, I bear with me your kind, good will, and that makes ab- 
sence tolerable. 
Sincerely, 

S. S. Cox. 

I will print, also, the record prepared by Mr. W. V. Cox, his 
nephew, of the American ancestry of Samuel Sulwvan Cox : 

Thomas and Elizabeth Blashford Cox settled in Upper Freehold Town- 
ship, Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1670. Thomas Cox was one 
of the twenty-four original proprietors of the province of East New Jer- 
sey. 

James Cox (born August 18, 1672, died April 17, 1750); a large land- 
holder and a man highly respected in the community. Married Anne 
(born January 16, 1672, died November 25, 1747). 

Judge Joseph Cox (born August 18, 17 13, died April 17, 1801); known 
as a man of strong mind and unblemished character. Married Mary, 
daughter of Thomas Mount, of Shrewsbury, N. J. (born May 31, 1715, 
died November 24, 1800). 

General James Cox (born October 16, 1753, died September 12, iSio); 
officer in the Revolution; speaker of the New Jersey assembly: member 
of Congress at the time of his death. Married Anne, daughter of 
William Potts, of Burlmgton, N. J. (born February 13, 1757, died March 
21,1815). 

Hon. Ezekiel Taylor Cox (born May 25, 1795, died May 18, 1873); 
moved from New Jersey to Zanesville, Ohio, early in the century ; State 
senator, clerk of supreme court of Ohio, United States marshal, etc. 
Married Maria Matilda, daughter of Judge Samuel Sullivan, of Ohio 
(born March r6, 1801, died April 3, 1885). 



102 Address of Mr. Lawler^ of Illinois^ on the 

Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox (born September 30, 1824, died Septem- 
ber 10, 1889); second son, editor, author, member of Congress, minister 
to Turkey, etc. Died while member of Congress. Married Julia Ann, 
daughter of Alvah Buckingham, of Ohio. 

He struggled in the world's rough race, 
And won at last a lofty place ; 
And then he died ; behold before ye 
Humanity's brief sum and story — 
Life, death, and all there is of glory. 



Address of Mr. Lawler, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker: Although my personal acquaintance with the 
late Mr. Cox dates back only some six years, I had previously 
known him by reputation for over a quarter of a centtiry. To 
say that his public career commanded my respect but feebly 
expresses the admiration with which I regard his many public 
achievements, especially those which have indissolubly con- 
nected his name with the highest attributes of philanthropy. 
That public man whose career in the councils of the nation has 
been specially distinguished for humanity, charity, and sj'm- 
pathy for his fellow-man deserves to win and wear a crown of 
immortality. 

It does not befit this solemn occasion to speak of Samuel 
Sullivan Cox as a partisan. While his affiliations with and 
services to the Democratic party had been life-long and emi- 
nent, without the slightest break in the political circuit, yet, 
nevertheless, he was far above the low plane of party in all the 
qualities and elements so necessary to true statesmanship. He 
was a representative American, proud of his country, proud of 
the American people, and devoted to the ennoblement of the 
American Republic. His sympathies were broad and acute. 



Life a>id Character of Samuel S. Cox. 103 

They welled out to all humanity wherever there was suffering 
and affliction among the people. 

These were the peculiarities and leading traits of his public 
career that first attracted my attention. It was my privilege to 
read and applaud his eloquent appeals for the establishment and 
maintenance of the L,ife-Saving Service, because I lived in a 
cit)- near by the great inland seas, over which frequent storms 
swept their fury and where the lives of those who "go down to 
the sea in ships " were in constant jeopardy. 

I well remember that when the tidings of the Russian perse- 
cution of the Jews reached us, Mr. Cox lost no time in offering 
and securing the'adoption by the House of a resolution protest- 
ing against these inhumanities and requesting the President to 
employ his best offices in behalf of the sufferers. I also recall 
the fact that Mr. Cox was always pressing in his efforts to secure 
the gold and silver medals authorized by law to be issued for 
those brave longshoremen who had rescued lives at the immi- 
nent peril of their own. Surely the endeavors of Mr. Cox to 
secure pensions for the widows of those gallant Life-Saving 
Service men who perished on our sea-board while following 
their dangerous calling should not be in vain, although he was 
not spared to see that measure successfully carried out. 

While it is not my purpose to review his life, there are cer- 
tain salient points to which I feel it my duty to allude. The 
present law apportioning Representatives under the Tenth 
Census was his work, and his speech on the centenary or 
Eleventh Census bill was undoubtedly the ablest and most ex- 
haustive ever made in Congress on that subject. He seemed to 
possess a wonderful faculty for calculations, and • loved such 
work, notwithstanding his public and private efforts had always 
been in an apparently contrary direction. 



104 Address of Mr. Lawler^ of Illinois., on the 

I remember that Mr. Cox estimated that the present census 
would show a population of 64,cxx),ooo, and this opinion is now 
borne out by the recent estimate of the Census Office, which ap- 
proximates the population at 64,443,000. I am informed that 
both General Walker, of Massachusetts, the Superintendent of 
the Ninth and Tenth Censuses, and Mr. Robert P. Porter, Su- 
perintendent of the Eleventh Census, regarded Mr. Cox as the 
ablest statistician and the most thorough scholar of the present 
day on this important question. 

There is, however, one subject which I feel in duty bound to 
mention specially. My colleagues will all bear witness to the 
unremitting labors of Mr. Cox on behalf of the letter-carriers, 
clerks in post-offices, and the railway postal clerks, a class of 
■ hard-worked and deserving employes of the Government whose 
assiduity and high order of integrity are admitted on all sides. 
To Mr. Cox more than any other single member of Congress is 
due the credit of securing the passage of the letter-carriers' 
eight-hour law, and he was the special champion of the measure 
to increase the pay of the post-office and railway-mail clerks, 
who are to-day the hardest worked and poorest compensated of 
all the Government employes. 

It is possible, Mr. Speaker, that I speak with some feeling on 
this question, for I followed the humble but no less honorable 
occupation of a letter-carrier for several years, and doubtless 
bore both joy and misery to many hearts wheu in my daily 
rounds I faithfully delivered the missives into the hands of 
those entitled to receive them. Mr. Cox was pleased to fre- 
quently talk over and consult with me concerning the letter- 
carrier and postal-clerk business, gleaning the varied and pecul- 
iar experiences attending the career of a letter-carrier in a large 
city. He probed deeply into this subject and wanted all de- 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 1 05 

tails, and I found that, while he sought to learn facts to govern 
his public action, he nevertheless desired to look into the many 
mysteries and incongruities of life with which letter-carriers 
have frequently to meet and deal. 

I hazard nothing in expressing the conviction that Samuel 
SuLLiVAX Cox will be missed more and more as time passes. 
There were but few such men and such minds in this or any 
other country. But miss him as we may from out the councils 
of the nation, who shall miss and deplore his loss like unto his 
amiable, loving wife, whose life was bound up in that of her 
husband; who was his faithful adjunct and never-separated 
companion from the hour they joined hands in wedlock at the 
holy altar ? Her loss, it is true, is very great, but the nation 
claims its share; and not the American nation alone, but all 
nations who honor the memory of great and noble deeds. 



ADDRESS OF MR, BUNNELL, OF MINNESOTA. 

Mr. Speaker: The earthly life of Samuel Sullivax Cox, 
which we this day rightly honor by words of merited eulogy, 
began at Zanesville, Ohio, September 30, 1824, and ended in 
the city of New York September 10, 1889. 

Other members of the House who shall take part in a com- 
memoration of his life and character will set out in fitting lan- 
guage his early life, the period of his training in the schools, 
his attainments in literature, his wit, his humor, his patriotism, 
his integrity in private and public life, the steadfastness of his 
friendships, his unswerving devotion to principle, his conceded 
statesmanship, his travels abroad, his large acquisition of knowl- 
edge, his love for the beautiful in nature and art, his generous 



106 Address of Mr. Dmtnell, of Mintiesota, on the 

culture, his reverence of God, and the amenities and kindnesses 
which were born of a large and generous soul. 

We mourn to-day the loss of a member who was in great 
honor among us, who indeed was loved. Few men ever served 
in this House of Congress who came so near his fellows as did 
our friend. There were in him elements of character that had 
this grand fruitage. He loved his fellows. He loved the good, 
the brave, and the oppressed. 

It will be my wish to speak of him as the large-hearted friend. 
Others may speak of his rare intellect, his correct and exhaustive 
study and analysis of American history and institutions, his 
clear conception of the end and limitations of human govern- 
ment; but I shall find more pleasure in an attempt to show in 
what directions his generous, kindly nature took him. And 
that I may do this more fulh-, I shall give a place to some of 
his own words, used in the advocacy of measures which brought 
this kindly nature into exercise. 

On June 4, 1878, Mr. Cox made a memorable speech in this 
House in support of the Life-Saving Service. It was a speech 
of great power as well as beauty. This service he profoundly 
loved. His very soul reveled in thoughts of life, its exceeding 
value, the superlative glory of saving it. His words mirrored 
a spirit which must surely bring to its possessor and hold by 
unseen cords, in devout reverence and affection, any soul which 
yields to the beauty of human kindness. In this speech he said: 

I have said, Mr. Speaker, that we have one beautiful statute which 
has a sacred halo around it. It makes a sunshine in the shadow of our 
selfish, sectional, and patriotic codes and laws. It is that which pre- 
serves human life. It is not merely a sentimental humanity, but a real 
benefaction. Like the orange tree, it bears fruit and flowers at the same 
time. * * * 

It is no e.xaggeration to say, in \-iew of its object, that it gives us a 



Life and Character o/Satnuel S. Cox. 107 

glimpse, though dim, of the golden age. The world's heart clings to it 
as if it were a memory of a past paradise or the hope of a paradise re- 
gained. The sea itself plays its mighty minstrelsy in its honor. » * * 
Life is precious because its loss can not be repaired. Jeremy Taylor has 
told us that while our senses are double there is but one death, but once 
only to be acted, and that in an instant, and upon that instant all eternity 
depends. Other losses may be recompensed by gains, but loss by death 
never. No one is so lordly or powerful as to stay this irreparable loss. 
Every day puts us in peril ; while we think we die. What care and es- 
teem can equal the eternal weight of human life? Can any legislation 
be too ample or adequate for its protection ? 

It was in the great speech from which the above sentences 
were taken that he pictured in the most graphic periods the 
vessel freighted with human souls wrecked upon the rocks, the 
double darkness, the seething sea, the ingulfing waves, the 
horror, the unutterable helplessness of crew and passengers, 
and then in words of exultant hope lights up the darkness by 
the cry of "The life-boat ! the life-boat !" 

It was on this occasion that he gave a thrilling account of the 
wreck of the French steamer Amertque, January ii, 1877, and 
brought out in such matchless vividness the work of the life- 
saving stations of the New Jersey coast. The appeals in that 
speech, its unanswerable arguments, brotight great honor to 
Mr. Cox at home and abroad. The then pending bill passed, 
and from that day we have had a fixed and efficient Life-Saving 
Service, doing honor to the country and our Christian civiliza- 
tion. 

Near the close of this defense of the life-saving system he 
said: 

Mr. Speaker, 1 have spent the best part of my lite m this public service. 
Most of it has been like writing in water. * * * But what little I have 
accontplished in connection with this Life-Saving Service is compensation 
sweeter than the honey in the honey-comb. It is its own exceeding 



108 Address of Mr. Duiincll^ of Miiiiiesofa, on the 

great reward. It speaks to me in the voices of the rescued; ay, in tears 
of speechless feeling; speaks of resurrection from death, 

In spite of wreck and tempest's roar, 
In spite of false lights on the shore; 

speaks of a faith triumphant over all fears in the better elements of our 
human itature. It sounds like the undulations of the Sabbath bell ring- 
ing in peace and felicity. It comes to me in the words of Him who, 
regardless of His own life, gave it freely that other lives might be saved. 

I have already said that Mr. Cox loved the brave, the daring 
ill human conduct. Gentlemen who have served upon the 
Committee on Commerce in this House when he had a seat here 
will recall how quickly he came to the rescue when any bill or 
resolution went to that committee which looked towards any 
abridgement of any of the privileges of the pilots in New York 
Harbor. He resisted every such bill with promptness and un- 
flagging zeal. 

I remember a scene in the room of that committee in the 
Forty-fourth or Forty-fifth Congress. 

A very strong opposition to the compulsory pilotage system 
was found to exist in the committee and in the House. Mr. 
Cox appeared before the committee and demanded a full hear- 
ing, and at which the pilots should be present and be heard. 

His request was granted, and at the next meeting of the com- 
mittee he had the room filled with the pilots then in service in 
the harbor. They were men of noble bearing. They pleaded 
in totichiug language for their vocation, for their wives, and 
their children. Mr. Cox moved among them. His presence 
was their support. In the face of every pilot could be seen how 
much they honored and loved their great friend. His protect- 
ing kindness filled them with the profoundest gratitude. Their 
movements, their words evinced the great hold his gracious 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 109 

efforts for them had given him. He was their Representative, 
but he was their attorney and their friend. 

When the marble shaft shall rise above the resting-place of 
our friend there could fittingly be carved upon it, in full relief, 
the life-boat mounting swollen waves on its way froo^ the shore 
to the discovered wreck; and on another side, pilots standing 
with ready oars, watching the approaching vessel. These two 
classes of men had his sympathy, his admiration, and his ready 
service. To save human life was, with Mr. Cox, the grandest 
service of man. 

The drying up a single tear has more 

Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore. 

Mr. Cox hated oppression. His very nature abhorred it. 
Against it he everywhere raised his voice. He loved fairness. 
Men and classes of men with whom he could not agree had in him 
a defender when they were wronged or oppressed. He would 
forgive their errors and labor to raise them, free them. The 
spirit of forgiveness moved him, and thus his life was full of 
generous deeds. 

While he was a firm believer in the Christ of the New Testa- 
ment, yet the spirit of him who said "Father, forgive them " 
taught him to repel oppression done to the Jews of his own and 
other lands. They had in him a grand defender. These people 
came to honor him, and when he died their best orators vied 
with each other in words of high, merited eulogy. One of 
them used the following words: 

Among the many friends who have contributed to our welfare at home 
and abroad, as a people and a race, no one ever so endeared himself as 
the late S.^iMUEL Sullivan Cox. A statesman, a patriot, a legislator, a 
diplomatc, an author, a wit, a lecturer, he was, notwithstanding all these 
attributes which caused him to be devoted dav and night to the manv 



110 Address of Mr. Diitmell^ of Minnesota^ on ike 

duties of his calling, a devoted friend, a strong and wise defender of the 
oppressed of all climes and of all faiths, a counselor humane, gentle as a 
woman, genial, exuberant, and bubbling over with the well-springs of a 
humanity that had its fount in the heart, and that had its elevation in the 
loftiest attributes of a refined and cultured brain. 

On the 4th of July, 1889, Mr. Cox stood in the midst of as- 
sembled thousands of his fellow-citizens at Huron, in the then 
Territory of Dakota. No more imposing or grander ovation 
was ever given to an American citizen than was given him on 
that occasion. The prairies, the towns, and the villages for 
miles around were deserted, for their inhabitants would look 
upon their great deliverer. These people would hear the voice 
of the eminent statesman who, in the House of Representa- 
tives, had raised his voice for fair play. They were not drawn 
to the place so much to hear the great orator as to look upon 
the man whose great heart had borne him beyond the line 
which his party had set for him. They were not simply grate- 
ful, they were in love with him. He was their hero. They 
pressed upon him, for they deemed him something nobler than 
a mere orator or statesman. They felt him to be a fellow-citi- 
zen, kind, generous, and full of good will. 

These people were not mistaken. They had rightly judged 
the man in their unspoken thoughts. They gave him as just 
and true a eulogy as we, who have known him long and well, 
can give him here to-day. 

In a further mention of the character of Mr. Cox I can not 
omit a reference to his strong personal attachments, to the warm 
friendships he cherished. He did not forget his friends. His 
reminders were frequent. Sometimes they were from scenes 
and places sacred to the most hallowed memories. 

In 1881 he was in the Holy Land. The flowers of spring, 
taken from the Mount of Olives and Emmaus, gathered into 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. Ill 

small bouquets, he sent to his friends at home. While with 
reverence he was passing over roads trodden by the Nazarene, 
while he was recalling the Crusaders and the mighty efforts to 
capture the Holy Sepulcher, the delicate flower by the wayside 
he would pluck and send to friends far away, as though he 
would thus transmit to them the tender emotions then moving 
his own reverent spirit. He would transmit to them the deli- 
cate emblem of a pure friendship. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Cox began with the opening of 
the Forty-second Congress. There were elected to the House 
of Representatives of this Congress but nine of the two hundred 
and forty-three members composing the House of that Congress. 
Of these nine, three have fallen since this Congress came into 
existence. But six remain, Mr. Banks, Mr. Holman, Mr. 
Whitthorne, Mr. Ketcham, Mr. Harmer, and myself I could 
not refrain from an allusion to the changes in the membership 
of the House in this period of nineteen years. While we are 
commemorating the life and character of Mr. Cox, we are una- 
ble to forget the more recent death of Mr. Kelley and Mr. 
Randall. 

How well these three men wrought in this House! How 
great they were! How rich in learning they became! How 
mighty in influence, how useful, how patriotic, how upright! 
For nearly thirty years, here they sought the nation's good. 
They honored this branch of the National Legislature. They 
honored the States they represented. They honored the entire 
nation, and it to-day profoundly mourns their death. 

We have wisely set apart these hours to name the virtues and 
the work of Samuel S. Cox. His life was eminently honora- 
ble and useful. It were easy further to speak of his rare mental 
culture, his varied learning, his many and valuable contribu- 



112 Address of Mr. McAdoo^ of New Jersey^ on the 

tious to literature, his participations and triumphs iu debates 
in this House, his advocacy of humane legislation, his patriot- 
ism, his strong love for American institutions, his thoroughly 
American habits and tastes, whether the representative of his 
people at home or of the Government in a foreign court, and the 
quiet and unostentatious life he lived, yet a life of vast activity. 

Our friend was a great man. His attainments, his labors, the 
character of his work, the spirit with which he wrought, place 
him among the foremost men in American history. His great- 
ness was resplendent in his generous and ever active love for 
his fellow-men. He hated ever}' form of wrong done to man. 
He was the defender of the injured. His tender and generous 
heart went out in love for the entire family of man. 

In this light I have sought to- place him. His fame is fixed. 
No words of mine can extend it. 

Nothing can cover his high fame but Heaven; 
No pyramids set ofif his memories 
But the eternal substance of his greatness, 
To which I leave liim. 



ADDRESS OF MR. MCADOO, OF NEW JERSEY. 
Mr. Speaker: It requires an effort to realize that within these 
historic halls the familiar face and form of our dead friend can 
no longer be seen. It seems but yesterday that he stood in 
yonder aisle a living and intense personality, radiating intelli- 
gence, hiunor, and hopefulness to all around him. In the 
mental vision which photographs the past into life and light I 
see him now, standing in his favorite attitude, with deft and 
graceful gestures, illuminating the question to which he ad- 
dressed himself with electric flashes of reason, learning, and 
wit from a .seemingly inexhaustible store-house. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 1 1 ;l 

A copious but chaste vocabulary waited upon a rich, nimble, 
and picturesque imagination which had been stimulated by 
long voyages on the seas of universal literature, a long and 
constant experience with all kinds and conditions of men in 
nearly all lands. In command of such arsenals of the mind, 
and with that ripe experience that gave skill and accuracy to 
the handling of every weapon, beloved, admired, followed, ap- 
plauded, in the very zenith of a useful life the world ended for 
Samuel Sullivan Cox, and our friend and associate has van- 
ished into the heart of the great mystery, and in the common 
phrase we say he is dead. Ever since the world began, before 
such graves as this philosophy and science have vied with faith 
in an endeavor to console the living and justify the wisdom of 
the universal law. The poet, too, has defended our common 
mother by insisting that — 

When the poet dies 

Mother Nature mounis her worshiper. 

Alas! were this but true; for, sad to see and know, nature 
seems callous and indifferent to the woes of man. The sun 
shines, the flowers bloom, the streams run singing to the sea, 
and the heart of nature breaks forth in song, oblivious of 
widows' tears and orphans' sobs and new-made graves, and the 
hardships, crosses, and burdens of our mortal life. 

The birds sing joyously beside the death chamber where love 
with breaking heart in agonized accents appeals in vain for re- 
laxation of the inexorable laws of nature. The lost sailor wails 
piteous prayers to the cruel sodden skies of the Arctic Circle 
that nature would still her fierce forces. 

The traveler beseeches in vain the burning sun to moderate 
his rays on the gray sands of the parched and arid regions of 
the tropics. Nature seems deaf and heartless, with no equities 
H, Mis. 2i3 8 



Ill Address of M)\ McAdoo, of Neiv Jersey^ 07i tlie 

in her undeviating and universal laws; and had not faith cast 
heavenly light on the maxims of philosoph\- and discovered in 
the nnknown forces of science omniscience, mercy, and love, 
the fate of man in this onr world would be sadder than that of 
the patient ox that this spring-day turns the furrow in yonder 
field and to-morrow is the victim of the shambles. 

It is not my purpose to recount the details of the bus\- and 
illustrious life of Mr. Cox. The story of his busy career has 
been well and graphically told here and elsewhere. Neither is 
this the time and place to accurately analyze the character of 
this distinguished man. The Ohio boy, picturing in the col- 
unms of the country newspaper with free, artistic hand the 
glories of nature; the statesman, loving his countr)' and his 
kind, and enchaining the human heart with the magic of his 
voice as he pleaded for fraternity and the rights of man; the life 
hallowed by the holiest of loves and blessed with the utmost do- 
mestic felicity — these are but bare outlines of his eventful 
career. 

Gifted, versatile, cosmopolitan, the range of his mental vis- 
ion sped from land to land and ranged the orbits of other worlds 
in star-gemmed space. Intensely American in the best and 
highest sense, he was neighbor and brother to all mankind. He 
lived in close communion with nature, loving the beautiful and 
the good, and his pulses timed their beat with the throbs of the 
great heart of humanity. No narrow geographical limitations 
marred his patriotism, no undue and rigid nationalism clouded 
his judgment or numbed his sympathies for men and women 
in other lands. 

The whole of our comparatively little world, swinging here in 
universal space, was not too large to enter the conceptions of 
his reflective mind, and humanity was but a family in which 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 115 

all were to him akin. Intensely active and varied was this life 
of our illustrious countryman, characteristic of so much in our 
country and its ways. In his intense mental activity he had in 
less than the ordinary life of man swept from center to horizon 
on every topic as it arose. His grand themes, to which, how- 
ever, all subjects were subordinated, were liberty in man and 
the freedom of local rule. His very heart-strings vibrated to 
the sublime anthem of universal liberty. 

He was democratic in a sense so high, broad, and deep that 
it knew no confines. He loved his party for its principles and 
his principles he subordinated to no expediency. The secret, 
in part, of his great success was, in my opinion, due to high 
and noble motives, persistency, and independence in pursuing 
the object in view, and the intense concentration of a brilliant 
and fully equipped mind and magnetic and pleasing personality 
in the one thing to be done at the particular moment. 

No man was so well adapted as he to represent the great 
metropolis of New York. He was in touch with the heart of 
that great cosmopolitan world's city. The mingling of races, 
the confusion of tongues, the catholicity of its sympathies, its 
world-pervading commerce, the rush and Americanism of its 
splendid progress, charmed a mind universal in its tendencies. 
He was the favorite child of the great city. In the whirl and 
storms of its business and its politics, by general acclamation 
he was reserved to pursue his great career in these halls. 

It was the highest tribute to him that in the very whirlwind 
of conflicting passions and ambitions his seat in this Chamber 
was set aside as sacred 'to the higher and better phases of 
national politics. He had so enthroned himself in the hearts 
of the masses that no selfish, malicious, or corrupt cabal, class, 
or clique dared raise their hands to do him harm. He had ever 



116 Address of Mr. McAdoo, of New Jersey, on tJic 

the friendship of the active nieu in the politics of his party, but 
his first thought was to represent the best interests of the rank 
and file of its voters. Never did man weld together in mutual 
friendship and confidence in himself so many divergent ele- 
ments as did Mr. Cox. 

The friend of labor, he was so honest, just, and clear in his 
statements of its cause that capital could not gainsay his reasons 
or question his motives. The advocate of progress and the 
highest civilization, he did not offend wise conservatism or 
identify himself with radicalism in any form. The lover of 
liberty and mankind, his voice was raised for the proscribed 
and outraged Hebrew in Russia or the condemned patriot lan- 
guishing in prison or facing the gibbet for love of Ireland, and 
yet the principles which marked his advocacy of men strug- 
gling for freedom were so lofty and disinterested that bigot nor 
despot dared to question his motives or make light of his elo- 
quent and forceful protests. 

There survives him at this moment at least one American citi- 
zen whom by timely action here he saved from a felon's doom 
for alleged treason to a foreign government. It was touching 
and dramatic that at the memorial meeting held by his con- 
stituents in New York over this friend of man a Roman Cath- 
olic priest should make the opening invocation and a Jewish 
rabbi deliver the closing prayer. Mr. Cox had a thorough ap- 
preciation of that great stream of humanity from other lands 
which forms on our shores and swells the grand army of Ameri- 
can citizens, and represented in this House many thousands of 
these naturalized citizens from many lands. He had their ad- 
miration and confidence in great degree, and among none did he 
stand higher than with Irish-Americans. His genial wit and 
humor, his quick Celtic temperament, his terse epigrammatic 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 117 

sayings, his eloquent diction, his intense love of freedom, all 
appealed powerfull}' to them. 

Aside from his many services in their cause, that he should 
possess their love and confidence is not strange, for often in 
conversation, with evident pride, Mr. Cox has assured me that 
his best powers and most marked characteristics of sprightly 
mentality, in whatever degree his mcfdesty would allow his mak- 
ing claim to these gifts, came to him from his Celtic ancestry, 
evidenced by his middle name of Sullivan. And among the 
many pleasant reminders of my friendly intercourse with him 
are some letters in his usual delightful style, written by him to 
me during his sojourn in Turkey, and in which he refers to the 
rich imager)' of the Oriental mind as being similar to that of 
the race to which he was of kin. While all the elements that 
make up our citizenship revere the memory of Mr. Cox, in the 
warm hearts of this race it shall ever remain like the perpetual 
verdure of Innisfail. 

Mr. Cox was blessed above measure in the sweet and tender 
companionship of the best of wives. Constant companions, 
faithful lovers, kindred spirits, they saw together many lands and 
strange peoples, journeyed in the fields of literature, traversed 
together the rich meadows of thought and imagination, and 
gazed at the world's painful but glorious progress from the high- 
est altitudes of historic research. From the armory of thought 
and study, the well equipped and pleasant workshop in which 
he furbished up his weapons and donned his armor, she for many 
years saw him go forth to unbroken victories in the highest 
arenas of mental contest, prouder than Spartan mother who 
watched her son go forth to battle. To the noble and stricken 
wife he is not dead, for his freed spirit still communes with her 
in a thousand tender recollections, and she lives amid the rich 



118 Address of Mr. McAdoo, of New Jersey, on the 

harvestings reaped by his genius and breathes an atmosphere 
weighted with the gratitude and admiration of his countrymen. 

The great dead need no monuments to perpetuate their mem- 
ory. Moses and David, Socrates and Csesar, Paul and Shakes- 
peare, the host of mighty dead, their fame has outlived the 
ravages of time, the upheavals of nature, the violences of revo- 
lution, and the vandalism of man, and they live and speak to 
us without the aid of art or the gilding of rhetoric. 

The great dead wrote their names while they lived as it were 
in the firmament, and planted their memories by the never- 
ceasing rivers of thought, and the memory of the good dead is 
embalmed forever in the richest affections of the human heart. 
They speak to us by the nobility of their actions and the wis- 
dom of their recorded sayings. They testify to us with such 
potency that the patriarch Abraham from the celestial heights 
refused the appeal of the suffering Dives to send the glorified 
L,azarus to his wayward brethren, saying: "If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, neither will the}' be persuaded though 
one rose from the dead. ' ' 

Samuel Sullivan Cox has written his name on the pages 
of our history which record the great struggles, prevailing 
glories, and astounding progress of the Republic. He dwells 
forever in the grateful hearts of a humanity that he loved and 
served, and will continue to speak to tis and to posterity for 
justice, freedom, and truth. 

He sits in high communion with the masters of the mind, 
with the lovers of freedom and of man, with the immortals of 
of our land, with the dear companions and brave comrades in 
many a contest in this historic forum. Rest well, our brother; 
rest well, for thou hast done a true man's work in th}- all too 
brief day for a still struggling and suffering world. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 119 



Address of Mr, Chipman, of Michigan, 

Mr. Speaker: It was my good fortune to know Mr. Cox 
during my early manhood and to be honored with his regard 
up to the time when I saw him las?, at the adjournment of the 
Fiftieth Congress. To say that his death shocked me would 
be mere commonplace. Men who attain three scores of years 
are never shocked by death. It has hovered around their career, 
dogging their steps with ever-increasing speed, until it is a 
familiar presence, and they know not whether their partings 
are good-night or good-by. And so when one of us falls from 
the ranks, never to catch the step of life again, we must march 
on to our appointed time wondering when it will be, and won- 
dering, too, whether it is well with those who have gone before. 

To a strong man there is pity in this wonder; pity for him- 
self, pity for others; for he knows, however strong he may be, 
that living has not always been triumph, nay, not happiness 
even; and that, if life is a bubble to break, no matter in what 
golden hues, ou the air, or the cunning of a complex machine 
to lose all power when its cerements fall from it, it is not worth 
living. He sees that immortality alone gives emphasis to hu- 
man joys and griefs, to the relation of man to man. Hence we 
whisper over the dead and step with muffled feet. The ques- 
tion "What is there beyond?" crowds out all baser thoughts. 
The old, old mystery is an eternal sphinx to the generations of 
man. 

We doubt, we hope, we believe, we fear; yet we know that 
the wind bloweth not where it listeth; that alike when it bears 
terror and destruction on its wing, or when its breath is sweet 



120 Address of Mr. Ckipman., of Michigan., on /he 

with summer blooms, it o;oes to its appointed task. We know, 
too, that the heart and brain of man have their labor of love 
and benefaction, their seed-time and harvest of endeavor and 
power. Do they, like the wind, die out in ocean solitudes? 
Or do they quaff immortality in better worlds and hew to nobler 
ends in eternal opportunity? 

I know full well the vanity which, even when we act our 
parts meanly, throws its glamor around us. We strut our brief 
hour. We make great outcry for fame. We mistake noise for 
action. We have innumerable reasons for despising, honoring, 
pitying, condemning ourselves. Still, when we lie before each 
other chiseled by the cunning art of death into marble helpless- 
ness, we say, "Here is a shrine for pity's tears; here a mystery 
which makes this clay a thing of awe; here may be an angel's 
cast-off robe; here an abode of immortality, which will itself 
rise to immortality." 

When the one we mourn has lived nobly we must say this. 
When he has been powerful as well as good, but above all pow- 
erful, we feel that he can not be extinct. 

Happy are we in that faith to-day. The memory we honor 
"smells sweet and blossoms in the dust." The life we recall, 
the virtue we pay tribute to, the genius which still scintillates 
in this Chamber, were all noble, all worthy of these high obse- 
quies. We can imagine for them a higher life than mortals 
have, a ripening rich and large, glowing with a greater wisdom 
and free from every earthly blight. 

It is difficult to speak on an occasion of this kind with the 
sober propriety which is respectful to the dead and to ourselves. 
Eulogy is often but a tribute to ourselves. To love virtue is 
near akin to being virtuous. To comprehend great actions is 
an approach to greatness. So we place our wreaths upon a 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 121 

tomb and think them more beautiful because they are ours. 
Yet, on this solemn occasion, in this great house of the people, 
I believe there is here to-day mourning and reverence for the 
worth and genius which only yesterday were our delight and 
pride. 

The career which has closed was not all sunshine. In many 
years of political strife there were storms as well as calms. 
Feeling often ran riot, and there were those who could not con- 
ceive that they would be mourners here to-day. For, sir, this 
man who has left us was an earnest, brave man. He clung to 
his faith in defeat as well as in victory. He lived his early 
years in the tempest of the Republic's history. He acted with 
strong men, bold men, great men, and struggled with the giants. 
He smote and was smitten; but in the fierce contest his courage 
was serene and high, his patriotism incorruptible, and his abil- 
ities up to the standard of the exigencies of his times. This is 
saying a great deal of any man, but it is only saying that he 
bore himself nobly in a goodly company of the honored sons of 
his country. No doubt some of his contemporaries in those 
troublous days were impatient with him. We are all prone to 
be impatient with those we can neither bend nor break. That 
is human meanness, and fortunate is the man who disco\ers 
that it is meanness and rises to higher planes of judgment. 

We all saw that this man had the weaknesses and faults of a 
high, generous nature, but now that lie is gone we see that he 
was our brother after all, and that he was wise and gifted be- 
yond all of us. We see this clearly now, for it is the blessed 
power of death to give a better vision to the living and lend to 
their gaze all the tenderne.ss of the heart, all the greatness of 
the soul. 

I hope, then, that I may be permitted by the members of this 



1 22 Address of Mr. Chipman, of Michigan, on the 

body to credit him with his sincerity as a Democrat. He never 
faltered in that. He never counted the cost in that. It was his 
fortune to be opposed to a strong majority during a national 
convulsion; not opposed to the prosecution of the war for the 
Union, but to constructions of the Constitution which he re- 
garded as dangerous to liberty and to a use of victory which he 
felt to be unpatriotic. 

His sentiments were not always pojDular, but he did not 
shrink. He faced storms few men would dare to face, and he 
and the great Pennsylvanian whose sunset lingers in the tender 
glow of a people's love and the glory of his great achievements, 
asserted the principles of the Constitution and advocated a wise 
statesmanship. 

I repeat it, he did not count the cost. Other men fled their 
party and sought refuge under the shadow of power. He knew 
whither thrift led. The path to position and fortune was well 
beaten; but when the rebellion ended he thought good feeling- 
should prevail, that the Union should be relaid in constitutional 
freedom and in the affection of restored brotherhood. For this 
I honor him. It was the highest loyalty. He was right. No 
doctrine of internecine hate can elevate the power or swell the 
prosperity of the nation. We are one family, North, South, East, 
West, children of one mother. All our great policies prove that. 
Even our tariff differences cluster around the necessity to seek 
each other's good. 

In his love for the Union and his hatred of rebellion I sym- 
pathize with him. In his immovable faith that the passions of 
war ought not to be terror-striking ghosts, haunting the bless- 
ings of peace, I reverence him. 

But, sir, his career in this House was not all storm. Here 
was his true home, here his most congenial field of action. 



Life aud Character of Samuel S. Cox. 123 

Here his wit and wisdom delighted and instructed his country- 
men. He was a great commoner, a true representative of the 
people. Many of you knew him well. His voice lingers in 
your ears and provokes your wonder and applause. He was 
undoubtedly a man of wit, and I think regretted that he was 
such a man; but he was wise also. He was laborious; he was 
well informed. He honored this body too much to indulge in 
superficial preparation. I have observed that there is knowl- 
edge here of every subject discussed, and that the man who 
would be heard respectfully must understand his theme. He 
never abused the patience of the House; he never dared to be 
ignorant nor presumed to be superficial. 

When we remember what a field he explored this is high 
praise. He did not pose for grand occasions, but when they 
arose he stood well to the front. The hard work of the Census 
Committee, the claims of the railway mail clerks, the necessity 
for shorter hours of labor, the efficiency of the life-saving 
stations, the admission of new States, the administration of our 
land system, the irrigation of the arid regions — all these en- 
gaged his best abilities. Who of you who were here in the 
Fiftieth Congress can forget his appeal in behalf of the benefi- 
cent scheme of the Director of the Geological Survey to reclaim 
the arid lands ? It was a poem as well as an argument, and you 
saw water quickening the dead earth and making the desert 
bloom as a rose. 

Besides his labors here, he was a scholar and an author; but 
I do not care to follow him beyond the portal of the abode of 
his highest fame. 

And now it seems strange, wondrous strange, to speak of him 
as gone forever ! But yesterday he was so buoyant, so alert, so 
indomitable. The idea of mental force was as an atmosphere 



124 Address of Mr. Covert^ of Neiv York, on the 

around him. Where is that force now ? Is it quenched in im- 
measurable space ? Is it no more forever ? Our eyes question 
the everlasting depths, our hearts yearn for a voice from the 
eternal silence; but we know that a noble spirit has departed 
and that America mourns for a well-beloved son. 



Address of Mr. Covert, of New York, 

Mr. Speaker: He is not absent who is not forgotten. In this 
sense the distinguished Representative, the genial gentleman, 
and the faithful friend in whose memory we are met to-day is 
with us now — -in the place which next to his home he loved 
best on earth — the Hall of the House of Representatives. 

We are met to-day to place upon the records of this House 
our appreciation of the great loss his district, his State, and the 
nation have alike sustained in' the passing away of one who 
was an able, courageous, and most conscientious Representative 
in Congress. 

We who served with him here niaj' be permitted to voice a 
nearer and a deeper grief at the more personal loss sustained by 
us in the severance of the ties which bound us to one whose 
abilities commanded our respect and whose warm and genial 
nature had won our love. 

We are to-day honoring ourselves in honoring the memory 
of our late associate, in sorrowing that his labors for the public 
good are over, "and sorrowing most of all that we shall see his 
face no more." 

My esteemed friend and colleague [Mr. Cummings] has given 
us in his own clear and earnest way a full and perfect record of 
the life and public services of his illustrious predecessor. We 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 125 

have heard from him of his student days, of his admission to 
the bar, of his editorial experiences nearly forty years ago, and 
of his subsequent political progress; his four terms in Congress 
from his native State of Ohio and his ten terms in this House 
from my own State of New York. This long service in Con- 
gress, in connection with his representation of this country 
abroad, presents a most extraordinary record and bears the most 
conclusive testimony as to the warm regard in which he was 
held by his fellow-citizens. 

• The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Holman] has spoken of 
the work of our late colleague in special directions: the tariff, 
the Life-Saving Service, the Federal censxis, postal matters, and 
foreign affairs. Duriiig his long experience in this House he 
had served on almost every important committee, and it would 
be difficult indeed to name a solitary branch of the public serv- 
ice on which he has not left the impress of his work. 

Those who served with him here will remember always his ap- 
pearance in this House; the lithe, alert figure, springing up at 
anv moment to cross swords with the most adroit debaters of 
this body; the sometimes impassioned, sometimes playful utter- 
ance and the characteristic gesticulation of head and hand as 
he attacked or defended the proposition under discussion. 

In debate he was eloquent and vigorous, and, more than this, 
clear and direct. I doubt if Samuel S. Cox, on this floor or 
in public discussion anywhere, ever made an obscure statement 
of an\' proposition in his life-time. 

M\- friend from Texas [Mr. Mills] has referred to ^Ir. Cox's 
powers of wit and humor. These were qualities he could not 
repress. It was as natural for him to be epigrammatic — to 
make a humorous allusion — as for the flower to bloom under a 
summer sky or for the bird to carol forth its greeting to the 



126 Address of Mr. Covert., of Neiv York, on the 

morning. His complex and yet symmetrical character would 
not have been complete without these traits, and they were 
qualities which tended to spread the sunshine of life among his 
fellow-men. 

There were, seemingly, born to our late associate, and his by 
right of natural possession, in large degree the qualities hoped 
for in the ideal god of the future: 

Can rules or tutors educate 
The coming god whom we await? 
He must be musical, impressional, 
Awake to all sweet influence 

Of landscape and sky. 
And tender to the spirit touch 

Of man's and maiden's eye. 

Though his was a nature eminently manly and every trace of 
effeminancy was foreign to it, he was in his mental and moral 
make-up as finely fibered as a woman. 

The possessor of a clear judgment and strong will, he was 
yet impressionable. All the sweet and mystic influences of 
nature reached and moved him; and like an instniment of 
music he was responsive to the slightest touch of feeling or of 
fancy. His Congressional labors alone would have seemed to 
call for all the time and thought that any man, possessed of 
even extraordinary ability, could command. But our late asso- 
ciate had unlimited powers of application. The arduous work 
so well performed in committees and on this floor constituted a 
part only of his labors. He worked for the accomplishment of 
large results, and he worked as well in lighter fields, perhaps 
for lesser objects; and these lighter labors were his means of 
recreation. I know of no one who in himself so well illustrated 
the power and compass of the cultured mind of this age. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 127 

With a restless energy he seemed to have absorbed, analyzed, 
and classified almost every subject of human thought. History, 
science, political economy, philosophy, romance, poetry — all 
these fields were explored, and from them he garnered into the 
store-house of his acti\e mind the richest treasures of the har- 
vest. Nothing seemed too remote for him to reject or too insig- 
nificant for him to investigate. 

He gave instruction as readily as he labored to attain it. Did 
he examine into any special subject as a part of his public work; 
did his reading lead his thought in any one direction; or did 
duty or even illness carry him abroad, his books, his letters, 
and his lectures gave the benefit of his experiences and study to 
the world. 

Let me take this occasion to express the hope that some lov- 
ing hand may in the near future cull from the vast collection of 
literary material he has left behind him what he would have 
most desired to be thus preserved. The compiler would find in 
this labor of love an embarrassment of riches, and the work 
would stand as the best monument that could possibly be erected 
to the memory of the lamented scholar and statesman. 

In my own small collection of literary treasures are copies of 
some of his books, prized most highly for their own merit and 
as gifts from my dead friend. In this collection is his Search 
for Winter Sunbeams; and I know of nothing which better 
illustrates his technical knowledge and habit of thorough re- 
search than the opening chapter of this book, in which he treats 
of "The functions of light." 

"Sunset" Cox loved the sunlight; loved it in its literal and 
in its figurative sense. He believed in letting in the sunshine 
upon every obscure point in science and philosophy, upon every 
dark spot in governmental policy whenever and wherever it 



12H Address of Mr. Covert., of New York, on the 

existed, just as he believed in flooding with golden sunlight the 
dark and dreary dwellings of the poor. His thoughts were 
bright and cheerful as the day; his mind had the vigor and 
healthful ness of the plant grown and nurtured under the sum- 
mer sun. 

As he loved all things bright and beautiful, so he loved and 
gloried in the material sunshine and in the sunlight of thought 
that illumined and made all things clear. To use one of his 
own utterances: 

The very acme of all joys, the joys of heaven, is expressed in the words : 
"And there shall be no night there." 

And death came when it seemed with him but little after 
noon. There was no darkness in his death, no sudden coming 
on of the night-fall. There was light to disclose the saddened 
faces of friends to whom in life he had been leal and loyal and 
who to the end were loyal and leal to him. 

There was light to reflect the last hand-clasp with her who 
had been the truest and closest companion of his manhood, 
and a holier light clear enough to reveal the heart-clasp so ten- 
der and yet so strong as almost seemingly to hold the speeding 
soul back from the brink of the great beyond. 

And so, loving and loved, he passed from the semi-dark- 
ness of this life into the eternal light and glory of the life 
hereafter. 

To the past go more dead faces 

Every year, 
As the loved leave vacant places 

Every year. 
Everywhere their sad eyes meet us ; 
In the evening's dusk they greet us, 
And to come to them entreat us 

Every year. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 129 

You are growing old, they tell us. 

Every year; 
You are more alone, they tell us, 

Every year. 
You can win no new affection; 
You have only recollection. 
Deeper sorrow and dejection 

Every year. 

But the truer life draws nigher 

Every year, 
And its morning star climbs higher 

Every year. 
Earth's hold on us grows slighter. 
And its heavy burden lighter. 
And the dawn immortal brighter 

Every year. 

It is difficult to realize that this busy, tireless worker who 
has woven his name and his fame into his country's history; 
this wise statesman and devoted scholar whom we all esteemed; 
this genial gentleman and faithful friend whom we all loved, 
has turned his dead face to the past and has left a vacant place 
among us. 

Time will do justice to his great abilities. History will re- 
count his public services. Warm hearts and loving lips will 
hand down his memory to those who follow. 

If they are not absent who are not forgotten Samuel S. Cox 
still lives and will live among men, while, loving the light as 
he loved it, his spirit dwells in the golden glory of the never- 
dying dawn! 

H. Mis. 243 9 



130 Address of Mr. Stone, of Missouri, on the 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Stone, of Missouri. 

Mr. Speaker: Tliere is a great difference in men. They 
differ as the stars — those lighted torches held up by the hands of 
angels, glimmering in the night — differ one from another in 
glor)-. vSometimes a light goes out which we do not miss. Its 
absence is not observed by men, unless in the convulsive agony 
of extinguishment it sweeps the sky with meteoric trail and we 
behold it for a moment, wondering, as it sinks into the shadow 
and fades away. Other lights there are shining in the azure 
fields which, if they should be extinguished, would disturb the 
harmony of the spheres and startle if not appall mankind. 

So some men, journeying now through blossoming clover- 
fields and now over toilsome hills, come to the end and lay 
down this thing we call life, and the great world goes on with- 
out a moment's pause. That is the fate of most men; a few 
fleeting years of effort and then the pitiless cycles of oblivion! 
Other men there are, better poised, better equipped, more reso- 
lute, whose lordly spirits rise on tireless wings to greater 
heights, and who shine among their fellows as the planets, those 
stately sovereigns of celestial empire, shine among the vestal 
fires burning chaste and pure on the mounting-steps of heaven. 
They are men of high purpose and great achievement, who not 
only make history, but are history. When such a man falls 
the human race stops and stands awhile in wonder. It is like 
the end and the beginning of an epoch. We can not go on until 
we pause and look back at the vast void occasioned by his ab- 
sence, and thenceforth we carry with us a memory of him and 
of his deeds. 



Life and Cliaracter of Samuel S. Cox. VAX 

In this mold of great men that noble gentleman whose 
memory we embalm to-day was cast. When Samuel S. Cox 
passed out from among men into the endless shadow of that 
mystery we call death, it was as if the evening star had slipped 
from tired hands and fallen to shine no more. 

What shall we say of him now that he is gone? What dis- 
tinguished him, what marked him as an exceptional man? Not 
simply that he achieved great things and made for himself a 
historic name, for that others have done. True, the scope and 
character of his achievements differ from those of most men we 
term great. Nearly all great men have accomplished greatness 
by persistent effort along some special line of thought or en- 
deavor. He was remarkable rather for the versatility of his 
thought and the diversity of his endeavor. 

He was a scholar of extensive research and splendid erudition; 
and yet in this respect he will not rank with that scholastic 
prince of the forge who spoke almost all the tongues of men, 
nor with those savants who solve the occult mysteries of nature. 
He had traveled much, had seen the wonders of many lauds 
and the civilizations of many peoples; and yet in this respect 
he will not rank with that stalwart wanderer who, having ex- 
plored the continents of the world, sang as he rode the laugh- 
ing wave: 

The Sea is a jovial comrade ; 

He laughs wherever he goes; 
His merriment shines in those dimpling lines 

That wrinkle his hale repose; 
He lays himself down at the feet of the Sun 

.\nd shakes all over with glee, 
And the broad-backed billows fall faint on the shore 

In the mirth of the mighty Sea. 

He was an author whose books enchant with bewitching de- 
scriptions and sparkle with noble gems of thought; and yet in 



132 Address of Mr. Stone, of Missouri, on the 

literature he will not rank with those immortals, rare and dis- 
tant, who, by the arduous toil of a life-time, wrung the jewel of 
fame from unwilling hands. He was a statesman of unsullied 
patriotism and comprehensive grasp; and yet in this respect he 
will not rank with the incomparable sage of Monticello, whose 
magic pen wrote the Declaration of Independence. He was an 
orator whose cimeter flashed at the front of fierce debate and 
whose impassioned eloquence swayed multitudes as storm-winds 
sway primal forests; and yet in this respect he will not rank 
with that impetuous child of the Revolution whose eloquent 
defiance was liberty's inspiration, nor with that stately Grecian 
who learned his first lessons from the thundering sea. He was 
an ambassador whose culture, grace, and gentle breeding made 
him a favorite and whose skill in diplomacy won him respect 
while it dignified the Republic; and yet in this regard he will 
not rank with Talleyrand, that wizard of the court, who, false 
it may be, yet played with kings as I might play with carved 
images upon a chessboard. 

Along all these paths he trod, in all these fields he wrought. 
He was great in all, without being exceptionally great in any. 
He was not exceptionally great, because he was not and could 
not have been a specialist. He drank not at one fountain alone, 
but at many. His foot-prints are left on more than one 
mountain peak. He was versatile, diverse, eclectic. But what- 
ever work he did was well done and whatever station he filled 
was adorned. We remember his splendid gifts — his learning, 
his writings, his eloquence, his statesmanship — ^and take pride 
in them as something not apart from ourselves. But those are 
not the things we love best to recall to-day, for those are the 
things which ha\e made him known of all men and given him 
place in history. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 133 

The dearest memory to us who knew him, who have felt the 
pressure of his hand and seen the sunlight on his face, is the 
man himself. When he laid down for awhile the heavy burden 
of his thought; when he left his books, those mute solitudes 
in which wise men lose themselves; turned aside from the in- 
tricate and unsolved problems of empire, to seek the com- 
panionship of friends, the man himself was seen as he came 
from the plastic hand of God, just as the flower imprisoned in 
folded calyx is seen when it uncovers its blushing beauty to 
the wooing sun. Then lie "wore his heart upon his sleeve. " 
How genial and companionable he was! How full of life, of 
the glad, rollicking joy of life, he sometimes seemed to be! — a 
very boy except in years, scattering laughter and sunshine 
along the way — 

Turning to mirth all things of earth 
.\s only boyhood can. 

And then, again, how gentle he was when sorrow folded her" 
pallid wings and brooded about the homes or the hearts of those 
he loved! In his presence sadness seemed less sad and a softer 
light crept in among the shadows, for in whatever he said and 
did there was something so like the melting music of woman's 
speech and the delicate touch of woman's hand. 

He loved the beautiful and the good. The tints of flowers, 
the exquisite shading of a bush, the golden glory of an autumn 
sunset, the swelling symphony of the sea, the glee and merry 
prattle of childhood — such things as these touched his poetic 
soul as with the magic wand of sweet enchantment. 

Such was the man we loved; and we loved him all the more 
because we felt and knew that behind this native gentleness,, 
back of this charming companionableness, was the strong, mas- 



134 Address of Mr. O' Donncll, of Michigan, on (he 

culiiie man, familiar with the philosophies of books and trained 
to the responsibilities of great affairs, who, when occasion re- 
quired, could be stern, rugged, obstinate, almost vengeful. 

Such was the man we loved, such the man we lament. He 
lived a pure and blameless life, noble, unselfish, useful, and he 
goes awa}' into the mystic summer-land leaving a great name 
behind him and taking with him the blessing of his race. He 
loved this beautiful world, and he had perfect faith in the here- 
after. Those who say there is no hereafter deu)- that they 
do not know, without asserting aught they do know. He 
wentawa\' without thought of fear, bearing a sweet message 
from the world to those who should greet him in the great 
beyond. 

I pay this poor tribute to his exalted worth and then go on 
wearing the memor\- of him near my heart as an inspiration to 
higher thought and better things. 

He was a man, take him for all in all, 
■ I shall not look upon his like again. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. O'DONNELL, OF MICHIGAN. 

Mr. SpE.^ker: The Fifty-first Congress has been called upon 
to mourn the loss of nine of its members. Some of these had 
ser\-ed here man}' years — all with fidelity, to their own credit, 
and ad\-antage to the nation. Death has reaped a rich harvest 
in this House. Their passing away is but th-e immutable law 
of nature. To-day we pay a tribute to the memory of one of 
tliat nimiber, Samuel Sulliv.-\n Cox. He served in this body 
nearly twenty-seven years. He entered these halls in 1S57. 
Since then more than one-half of those who made up the life of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 135 

tliat day have gone to the eternal rest. He held a foremost 
place ill the list of strong men who influenced public opinion 
and shaped the destinies of mankind during those eventful 
years. 

As a politician, a scholar of large attainments, author, jour- 
nalist, Representative in Congress, diplomate, he left the im- 
press of his indi\-iduality on all undertakings. His nati\-e en- 
dowments and acquired abilities were of service to his country. 
A man devoted to the political party with which he affiliated 
all his life, of strong convictions, he was considerately tolerant 
of the opinions of others. He was generous and charitable in 
all things. 

No member here thought at the close of the Fiftieth Con- 
gress that Mr. Cox was approaching that age in life when 
shadows foretell the nearness of evening. He carried his sixty- 
five years as lighth- as man}- men in the noon of life. If any 
friend coupled death and the statesman, this was almost put 
away by the feeling that the genial man could turn back the 
.somber Atropos with her fatal shears from his home. 

He departed from these familiar scenes to enter upon added 
duties. Although heavih' burdened, as is every member of this 
body, he assumed greater tasks, overtaxing the resources of 
nature; the hand was staid, the voice was stilled, and the out- 
come was the peaceful and eternal silence of death. 

Mr. Cox came to public life well equipped to meet every re- 
quirement of the position to which he was chosen. At college 
he graduated with the award of 2irizes_in classics, history, liter- 
ary criticism, and political economy. He began life as the ed- 
itor of the leading newspaper in his section in Ohio, and his 
ability and application were soon the means of calling him to 
higher fields of usefulness and honorable position. As a mem- 



]3G Address of Mr. O' Domiell, of Michigan, on the 

ber of this House he soon advanced in rank; it was not long be- 
fore he attained an eminent place in the parliament of the 
people. 

In this land, with its abundant opportunities, he won great- 
ness by doing his best, and the Representative who, when he 
commenced his duties in this Hall, was little if any known 
outside of his district, shortly challenged attention by his readi- 
ness, acumen, and native ability. He entered Congress in 
1857, serving eight years, receiving the approval of his con- 
stituents at four successive elections. During this period a 
new chapter was opened in the political chronicles of the 
nation. The mighty contest for libertj- rolled its crimson tide 
over the land. Mr. Cox was a firm supporter of the Govern- 
ment during that eventful epoch, while not hesitating to criti- 
cise, sometimes harshly and may be bitterly, the agents of the 
nation and their methods. 

He was a member of the war Congresses and was a deeply 
interested spectator and participant in the creative jieriod, 
when new systems took the place of the old, when one of the 
great movements of the world gathered and spent its mighty 
force. He saw the avenging genius of the country smite those 
who would destroy; he observed the period of happy transition 
from the old to the new, and rejoiced that it was followed by 
the unification of the American people. He hoped and wrought 
for an end of the work of blood; he wished for peace to come 
again to the distracted land; he, like Abraham, longed for the 
happy day. " He saw it and was glad." 

The nation laid deep and broad its future security. He real- 
ized that civilization supplied the momentum which swung 
the wheel past the dead-point in progress; that the restored 
Union and its results were the muniments of our civil libertv. 



Life and Character of Sainuel S. Cox. 137 

His history in those dark years was closely interwoven in the 
struggle for the national life. 

In those days party feeling ran acrimoniously high ; the Ijlister 
of public opinion fell upon the political organization with which 
he was identified, and he retired from these halls, soon to reap- 
pear indorsed b\- another constituency. Fifteen times in all he 
was commissioned by the people as a Representative in Con- 
gress, and here he remained to serve the nation. His star shone 
serenely above the gulf where there had been so many ship- 
wrecks. 

During all his long years of public service he was never be- 
smirched by any of the foul contaminations which unhappily 
sometimes envelop modern politics. As secretary' of legation. 
Representative in Congress, or minister to a foreign court, he 
demeaued himself to his own honor and the glory of the Re- 
public. He was conscientious, industrious, and faithful; his 
sagacity, discrimination, courage, and adherence to his concep- 
tion of duty were of that nature which adds to the power of the 
statesman. 

In this Chamber he achieved a marked standing as an effective 
speaker and was recognized as one of the readiest debaters in 
this body. His utterances abounded in common sense; he was 
philosophical, searching, going to the nerve of every subject, 
while his unfailing and inexhaustible fund of wit, humor, satire, 
and repartee made him an opponent in the arena of debate not 
to be sought after. His oratorical magnetism, brilliancy in the 
corruscations of fancy, drollery, and merr}' rejoinder often 
pricked the bubble of illusion, re-enforced by fact, epigram, and 
pleasantry. His forensic armon>- proved an arsenal of defense 
and attack, and he was ever ready to employ the great resources 
nature had oriven him. 



138 Address of Mr. C Douucll, of Michigan, on the 

With his brilliant attainments was the genial, gentle, kindly, 
heart, where the lightness of exquisite merriment welled np 
from an organization whose basis was laughter, which distin- 
ofuished him for bright and amusing saving-s. His cheerfulness 
was sunny and invincible. Why We Laugh, one of his books, 
was exemplified in the author in his drollery, kindliness, and 
humor, coupled with the joyousness of his life. To him was 
given the rare faculty of holding the close attention of his audi- 
tors when in debate. Withal he was a statesman who labored 
to secure the general prosperit\- of the nation and advance the 
well-being of the people. His long continuance in this House 
attests the appreciation of his fidelity and capacity. 

The annals of Congress exhibit his energy and wonderful in- 
dustry, and his genius is stamped in useful laws in the statutes 
of the nation. He was of service to his country; his character 
and ability adorned the place he occupied with short interreg- 
nums during three decades of Federal legislation. 

Mr. Cox came from a family of warriors and statesmen. His 
grandfather, General James Cox, sat in Congress, and, like the 
grandson, died while a member of this Ho'use. He never wearied 
in advancing the cause of the unhappy land beyond the sea, 
being true to the Celtic blood which warmed his heart. 

As a parliamentarian Mr. Cox ranked among those best 
versed in that intricate law and science. By acquirements, 
knowledge, and natural aptness he was wonderfully equipped 
for the position of Speaker, the great office of representative 
government, a place to crown his legislative career. In June, 
1876, death hovered over the occupant of the Speaker's chair; 
the incumbent was too feeble to discharge the duties of the 
Speakership; it was feared the then Speaker would never re- 
cover, and it was only a short time before the fading life of the 



Life and Character of Saimiel S. Cox. 139 

first officer of the House would expire. Mr. Cox was elected 
Speaker /;v tempore, and was iu the line of promotion. Polit- 
ical exigenc)- and devotion to his ideas of right took the prize 
from him just as he was about to attain the eminence. 

The part)- to which he belonged in the State of New York 
decided to present its great leader as a candidate for the Chief 
■ Magistrac\-. Mr. Cox was hostile to the nomination and de- 
termined to oppose the proposition. The alternative was pre- 
sented of losing the Speakership or joining the ranks of the 
dominant faction. It did not require long deliberation. Mr. 
Cox said, "I believe, with Islr. Burke, 'that the representative 
should represent,' and, as my constituents are opposed to Mr. 
Tilden and believe his election impossible, I must stand by 
them. " He resigned the place of Speaker //-o tempore, hastened 
to the national convention, fought a losing contest, and returned 
to the floor of the House, putting away forever the great ambi- 
tion of his life. 

Of the domestic life of the departed statesman I delight to 
speak. No small amount of his success was contributed by the 
wise counsels of the wife who mourns his departure. The hus- 
band believed with Lord Bolingbroke when he said, "If I were 
making up a plan of consequence I should like first to consult 
with a sensible woman." To the statesman she was the em- 
bodiment of all that was admirable, helpful, and hoh- in woman- 
hood. Many hearts ached for the desolate wife when the mighty 
hand of sorrow and affliction was so heavily laid upon her. 
Those two walked the journey of life in paths of happiness, 
' ' each for the other, both for God. ' ' 

Mr. Cox gave half his life to his country — j-ea, all. The 
nation was benefited by his years of devotion to the upbuilding 
of our institutions. His long continuance in this House was 



140 Address of Mr. O^ DoniicU^ of Michigan, on the 

owing to his loyalty to duty, sincere and able. Had he toiled 
less his life would have been prolonged. "The zeal of thine 
house hath consumed me," might be said of him, "for he 
labored for his country, as the Hebrew prophet served his God, 
with an ardor whose flame was clouded by no baseness." 

As an author our dead friend added to the literary possessions 
of the nation. The ten volumes from his brain and pen entitle 
him to a bright place in the republic of letters. 

All his books are interesting and instructive; his writings 
are entertaining, giving strength and knowledge. His indus- 
try, information, and discrimination are apparent upon every 
page, and the clear, compact, and intelligent treatment of all 
questions is observed in each chapter. He had the happy fac- 
ulty of saying things in a striking way, and most of his publi- 
cations are the product of conscientious study and research. 
The reader can not but note the admirable treatment of his 
themes, distinguished by a classic simplicity and lucidity, clear 
and graceful, denoting the intellect of the author, strong and 
full of creative force. 

His historical works illustrate the experience and learning 
that embellish every page; the events narrated are excellently 
concentrated and condensed, and the author established him- 
self as a clear and vigorous writer and thinker, delighting all 
with his extensive culture, discernment, and superior taste. 
His latest volumes exhibit the same polish, breadth, and thor- 
oughness of preparation; the advancing years of the author 
show no deterioration in happy expression, terseness, and reli- 
able statement. He exemplifies the saying of Milton, "A good 
book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed and 
treasured up to a life beyond life." In several of his works 
there is a glowing style and generous admixture of humor 



Life a)id Cliaractcr of Samuel S. Cox. 141 

coupled with profound truths semi-huinorously expressed. His 
uanie will have an honorable place in American literature. 

Death had no terrors for our friend. Even as the silver cord 
that moors us to time had been slackened and as he was drifting 
away to the still, strange land, just as he was about to vanish 
into the unknown, the genial spirit turned back and with a 
sunny smile renewed the joyousness of his being, exemplifying 
what was written three centuries agone b}- the great bard, ' ' How 
oft when men are at the point of death have they been merry ! " 

The four new States in this Union — the new jewels in the 
crown of statehood — owe much to Mr. Cox for their places in 
the galaxy of Commonwealths of the Republic. We remem- 
ber how persistently and with what ability he labored for their 
rights and won the long contest in their behalf Just before 
the close of his eventful life he visited the four communities 
brought into the family of States by his efforts and was wel- 
comed with all the honor he had so grandly merited. Just at 
the hour of his passing away he was to have spoken at his 
home about the New West, which he termed "Wonderland." 
It was another wonderland that dawned upon his vision. The 
veil which hides the future was rent asunder and the radiant 
soul passed to immortality. 

The man of genius who, by gentle and skillful adaptation of 
circumstances, often created so many pleasantries for his hearers; 
whose amusing sayings have brought joyousness in place of 
soniberness, have lifted the mists of shadows and opened the 
flood of kindness, placing all beneath the rainbow arch of de- 
light, has he gone to a land of no laughter? Is this the end of 
all? Has he gone down to the " tongueless silence of the 
dreamless dust?" No, nol He has entered into rest. Our re- 
ligion teaches us the inspired and comforting assurance that 



142 Address of Mr. LT Donnell, of Michigan, on the 

"though he were dead, yet shall he live." Now he sleeps in 
the calm serenity of death; the grave's impenetrable shadows 
will be lifted and dispelled, for it is written, "He shall never 
die." 

Mr. Speaker, the proverb "Say naught of the dead unless 
good" is a priceless tribute to our humanity and civilization. 
I am glad of this opportunity to speak of the memory of one 
now dead whom I esteemed so well in life — he so endowed with 
justice and generous magnanimity. As I have said, he was a 
statesman, a scholar, a diplomate. In these fields he attained 
deserved renown. Greater than all to me, he was a safe coun- 
selor and my friend. I lay a stone upon the cairn his country- 
men upbuild to his memory. His many acts of considerate 
kindness extended to me are treasured in grateful remembrance. 
Before coming here I had heard and read of this man .of great 
gifts; when seen and known I could say of him, as Hasdrubel 
had said of Scipio, that he was even more admirable when seen 
face to face than he had seemed when one only heard of his 
achievements. 

Such lives are beacons in the upward path of all who struggle. 
To my mind such a life enriches the age. As he stood upon 
the threshold of the world to come he — 

Calmly looked on either life, and here 
Saw nothing to regret, nor there to fear 

Now, a last farewell. He has gone. We leave him with the 
words of Wordsworth : 

For tlie weight 

Of the whole world's good wishes with him go. 



Life ami Cliaractcr of Saviiicl S. Cox. 143 



Address of Mr, Caruth, of Kentucky, 

Mr. Speaker: Just before the death of tlie Forty-ninth Con- 
gress I visited Washington and first saw Samuel Sulli\'AN 
Cox. To me his name had always been associated with the de- 
liberations of the American Congress. I had in my school-boy 
days learned to declaim extracts from .sjieeches he had here 
made. I had been captivated, charmed, and delighted by his 
eloquence, his pathos, and his wit. Therefore, when I gazed 
at the small, active form and looked in the .smiling, youthful- 
appearing face of "Sunset Cox" and felt the hearty grasp of 
his friendly hand, I was glad that I had been afforded the 
pleasure of being personally presented to him and to know the 
man as he was. From that first acquaintance there dated a 
friendship which strengthened until severed by death, for he 
was of too cheerful a disposition, of too open a heart, to hold 
himself aloof from the companionship of 3'ounger men who 
were just entering on the way over which he had so long trav- 
eled. On the contrar\', he was among the first to meet them 
on their arrival, to grasp their hands and lead them onward. 

His voice was first to be raised in warning if danger beset 
them, and in encouragement if, heart-sick and foot-sore, they 
wearied on the way. No older member became so readily ac- 
quainted with those new to the floor, and surelv none was on 
as confidential and friendly terms with them as Mr. Cox. To 
him the new member would freely go for advice, and all were 
kindly heard and usefully advised. None need be embarrassed 
b\- his manners, for they were so easy and friendly. One could 
ask him anything without fear of being misconstrued or ridi- 



144 Address of Mr. Carnt/i, of Kentucky, on the 

culed. The new members found that his was not the tongue of 
detraction to sneer at their efforts or belittle their importance, 
but rather that of praise to laud their endeavors and magnify 
their achievements. Such, in the two sessions of Congress I 
had the honor to serve with him, I ever found him. Is it won- 
derful that he was popular? What a master of oratory he was! 

I have seen the House almost as tumultuous as the sea in 
storm stilled to silence by the rising of his form from the midst 
of the tumult, the lifting of his hand with his familiar gesture, 
and the utterance of his "Mr. Speaker." I have seen the busy 
men of the House drop their pens and leave their desks to 
gather about him that they might hear what he had to say. I 
have seen the lobbies deserted, the cloak-rooms emptied, even 
the seductive restaurant ignored, the seats of the Chamber filled, 
because ' ' Sunset Cox ' ' held the floor. I have seen faces which 
were almost distorted with partisan passion, in the fierce hours 
of political confiict, smoothed to pleasant humor by the potency 
of his speech. 

Some men wear out or tire out as the months fly and the 
years pass. Some men stand still or drop behind in the race of 
life and let youth and vigor press to the fore; but he was ever 
alread)' with the times. Some statesmen grow dull as they 
grow older, and jjrosy and tiresome of speech, but he — never! 

Age could not wither him, nor custom stale 
His infinite variety. 

He was born for legislation and adorned this House by his 
presence. He had seen this body grow until it was forced from 
the old Hall — now the repository of the marble forms of departed 
greatness — into this larger and more commodious Chamber, and 
he was the first member to raise his voice in speech within these 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 14o 

portals. Is it a wonder that, when in foreign courts enjoying 
the distinction of being the representative there of this proud 
Government, he yearned to return hither and again resume his 
accustomed seat? 

Nothing could divorce him from legislative life. His impress 
had been set upon the statutes of his country; his life was 
spread upon the pages of the Record; he was part of it; it was 
part of him; naught but death could part the twain. His last 
utterance upon this floor was to resent an insult, as he thought, 
to the dignity of the House of Representatives. He had been 
an actor during "tTiree decades of American legislation." He 
loved the institutions of his country, was proud of the part he 
had taken in shaping its destiny. He had never met foe on 
battle-field or drawn the sword of war, but he had met in these 
halls and put to route the foes of constitutional government and 
wielded the sword of rights with steady arm and dauntless 
heart. He had won the stainless victories of peace, and the 
laurel wreath of honor should be twined in deathless glory 
about his brow. He was one of America's noblest sons. His 
life is part of her history and her greatness is reflected upon his 
name. , 

Not only was he a great orator and a great statesman, but he 
was a scholar besides. I asked him once how he found time in 
his busy life to give attention to literary matters and charm by 
printed page as he had by spoken word, and he told me that 
God had given him a helpmate in the person of his wife and 
that she had shared his labors as she had indeed doubled the 
pleasures of his life. And thus, loved at home, admired by his 
peers, honored by the people, the statesman, the wit, the scholar, 
passed his life away. The passing years left but little impress 
on his brow and made no mark upon his heart. 
ir. Mis. 243 10 



146 Address of Mr. Washington^ of Teiinessee-, on the 

I was in a foreign land when the news reached me that illness 
had stretched him on a bed of pain, and with heavy heart I 
awaited further news day by day, until in sorrow I read of the 
end. Had not ocean's waves separated me from his remains I 
would have stood by his bier and paid the last tribute the living 
can pay the dead. This poor consolation of friendship was de- 
nied me, but I can not refrain from taking a humble part in 
this closing scene of all and placing upon record this tribute of 
affection to my departed friend, the scholar, statesman, and 
patriot, Samuel Sullivan Cox. 



Address of Mr. Washington, of Tennessee. 

Mr. Speaker: We are assembled on this solemn occasion to 
do a last honor to the memory of our distinguished and be- 
loved colleague, the late Samuel Sullivan Cox, of New 
York. It is a maxim as old as humanity to speak nothing 
save good of the dead; but who, speaking in justice and truth, 
could say aught but good of S. S. Cox ? 

Born at Zanesville, Ohio, September 30, 1824, ^^is youth 
was passed in that beautiful pastoral region, where the trials 
and tribulations of the early settlers of that new State fired his 
imagination and filled his young mind with noble aspira- 
tions. 

A grandson, on his maternal side, of the Revolutionary 
hero, General Sullivan, he imbibed at a tender age a lofty am- 
bition to serve his country and to preserve untarnished the her- 
itage of constitutional liberty for which his ancestors so bravely 
fought. The broad bent of his mind, as well as the kindly 
love for his fellow-man which warmed his generous heart, aided 



■ Life and Character ofSanniel S. Cox. 147 

by the precept and example of his revered father, led him from 
the first to espouse the principles of Democrac}'. Often have I 
heard him tell, with pathos in his voice, how his father on one 
occasion lifted him in his arms to the door of a stage-coach to 
see and speak to that great Democratic apostle, Felix Grundy, 
then a Senator of the United States from Tennessee; how the 
kind words of that great man burned into his soul as, with his 
hand resting on his young head, he dedicated him, a boy, to the 
service of the Democratic party. Never in all his long and 
useful career did he falter in his true allegiance. 

His early schooling was at home and at the University of 
Ohio, at Athens. His collegiate training was at Brown Uni- 
versity, at Providence, R. I., where he graduated in the class 
of 1846. There he imbibed his political economy; there he 
learned the true theory of taxation, which should be for gov- 
ernmental and not for private purposes. 

There, from the lips of the great Baptist divine, Dr. Way- 
land, of whom he so often spoke in terms of affection, he 
learned that the government should be so administered as to 
bring the greatest good to the greatest number. There he ac- 
quired that keen, rapier-like logic with which he parried the 
argument and, breaking down the defense, would overwhelm 
with satire, wit, and sarcasm his opponent in debate. 

Columbus, Ohio, was the home of his early manhood, the 
theater of his first activity. While editing the Columbus 
Statesman he wrote that sketch of a glorious " sunset" which 
gave him the sobriquet which clung to him as long as he lived. 
I would not follow him through all the details of his long and 
useful public career, or rather, I should say, official life, be- 
cause his career was public in the highest and truest sense from 
his college days until his death. Twice he served in diplomacy 



148 Address of Air. Washing ton.^ of Tennessee., On tlie 

abroad, first as secretary of legation in Peru, in 1855, and after- 
wards as minister to Turkey, in 1885. 

During the latter appointment he gathered the notes and en- 
joyed the experiences which led to that charming book of his, 
the Diversions of a Diploniate. He had the unusual distinction 
of representing iu Congress at different times two of the great- 
est States in the Union. He was for eight years the member 
from the Columbus (Ohio) district, and, having changed his 
residence to New York City, after an absence of four years he 
came back to this Hall as one of the Representatives of the 
Empire State from the city of New York, which honored him 
by an election eleven successive times. He sat in fourteen 
Congresses, serving for twenty-eight during a period of thirty- 
two years, more than a generation. He died in the harness at 
the comparatively early age of sixty-five, having given half of 
his life to the service of his country. 

No greater or more unexpected shock could have been given 
to his friends than the telegraphic announcement of his death 
in the full vigor of his manhood, in the prime of his mental 
power. He was a man possessed of vast information in litera- 
ture, science, art, histor\% and politics. Quick in perception, 
he readily grasped an idea. In a long practical experience he 
had almost grown up with the legislation of this most active 
quarter of our century of national existence, and no false histor- 
ical statement went unchallenged in his hearing. Possessed of 
a wonderfully retentive memory, he held in reserve and could 
call up at a moment's notice facts of history, politics, religion, 
and science which would charm his hearers and amaze, con- 
found, and silence his opposers. 

Whenever he rose to speak a respectful silence fell upon this 
usually nois>' assembly and both political sides pau,sed to listen. 



Life and Character of SaniKcl S. Cox. 149 

Nor did he fail to amuse, entertain, and instruct. He had a 
thorough knowledge of men and motives, a keen perception of 
character. Travel had given him a fund of quaint incidents, 
which he had embellished by a close observation. A thorough 
parliamentarian, he was a terror to the opposition on the floor. 
While in the chair he was a correct, easy, impartial presiding 
officer. He became a prominent figure at a time when the 
foundations of vast fortunes were laid by the misuse of power 
and its opportunities, but the breath of scandal never came near 
his name. 

Throughout the whole of his long career we can say — what, 
alas! it is a reflection on American statesmanship that we should 
be compelled to refer to at all — that he was scrupulously honest. 
During the whole struggle of reconstruction which followed 
the war between the States, his devotion to the Constitution 
was conspicuous. He showed that he regarded that instrument 
not as a mere form of words, a growth of time, but rather as the 
complete and written chart of our liberties, left by the fathers. 
He made a record then which endeared him beyond measure 
to the hearts of the people of the South, and they longed for a 
fitting opportunity to show it. 

Of the rights and privileges of our adopted citizens of foreign 
birth, no matter of what nationality, he was always the cham- 
pion and the defender. 

One of the crowning glories of his life was his labor to estab- 
lish, to build up, and to make thoroughly effective the present 
L,ife-Saving Service along our coasts. 

Those who travel by water, who go down to the sea in 
ships, when they hear the hoarse waves' angry murmur should 
breathe a prayer for the peaceful rest of the soul of "Sunset 
Cox," for many thousands are the lives that have been and 



150 Address of Mr. Washing ton.^ of Tennessee^ on the 

that will be saved by the agencies which he labored to estab- 
lish. 

His sympathetic nature embraced all who labored, even the 
humblest man. It was he who, recognizing the long hours of 
toil and the poor recompense for the skill and intelligence re- 
quired, took up the cause of the letter-carriers and never staid 
his hand or voice until they were put on an approximately equal 
footing with the other employes of the Government. 

My acquaintance with him began in the Fiftieth Congress. 
I had the great good fortune to draw by lot a seat just in front 
of his. From the first he was my friend and my counselor. 
Always kind, ever ready with advice, aid, encouragement, our 
acquaintance soon ripened, on my part, into a warm and affec- 
tionate regard. After the adjournment of Congress sine die on 
the 4th of last March, I bade him a fond farewell. Later, in 
April, while he was on a lecturing tour, I had the great pleasure 
of meeting and entertaining him at Nashville. He was as full 
of the spirit of fun and laughter as ever. Seemingly in perfect 
health, he carried sunshine and happiness to the hearts of all 
who met him. 

With a tender voice he spoke to me of his dear wife, and said, 
"I had nothing else to do ; so I told Mrs. Cox I would take a 
trip with my lecture, and bring her home some shekels to fur- 
nisli the house." We parted on the train which bore him away 
to the centennial celebration in New York. A furious rain was 
falling, the thunder rolled, the sullen storm-clouds produced an 
awful darkness. It was an April morning. vSoon the rain ceased; 
the sun came out in all his glory; but our friend was gone ! 

Oh ! may the darkness of the shadow of death, through which 
he has passed, have dawned for him in the cloudless day of a 
liappy eternity ! 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 151 

Ready for action, full panoplied for war, at the sudden call 
he laid down his arms. The active brain was still ; the generous 
heart ceased to beat. Full of life, full of vigor, it seemed to us 
poor, blind mortals that his days of usefulness had but just be- 
gun. Oh, how he has been missed ! A gap in the ranks of his 
party that no one can fill! A break ifi the line of his country's 
defenders that no one can close! 

The vacant chair in his household must ever remain empty. 
Yet who knows but that his task was finished? Who knows 
but that the all-seeing Providence called him hence in the full- 
ness of time? The hour Iiad struck. 

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must 
put on immortality. 

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal 
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 



ADDRESS OF Mr. MAISH, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Speaker: The deeds of a great and good man are a 
legacy that a free people will not willingly let die. To per- 
petuate the memory of a faithful Representative is a fitting 
occupation for this House. The brother whose life and services 
we commemorate to-day illustrated by his public career, in an 
eminent degree, the qualities of an able, zealous, and patriotic 
statesman. His official life here, with only a few intermissions, 
extended over a period of more than thirty years, embracing 
within its compass the most critical period of our country's 
history. 

Men of all shades of political opinion agree that his services 



152 Address of Mr. MaisJi^ of Pennsylvania, on the 

to the Republic were of the highest value, and, at times when 
many honored names were sullied, the breath of suspicion never 
reached the elevation of his virtues. 

He was under all circumstances a thorough American. This 
country never produced a statesman who had a more sincere 
devotion for her institutiohs. He was a stanch Democrat and 
honestly believed that the teachings and principles of his party 
would best promote the welfare of his country, but when in his 
judgment the occasion demanded he rose above party and pur- 
sued fearlessly the path of duty. It can never be said of him 
that he gave to party what was meant for mankind. 

I can recall no statesman in our country's history who be- 
stowed such unremitting labor to the promotion of measures 
that he cherished. During his long career he discussed every 
prominent question that came before Congress. His speeches 
would fill volumes, and they display such a depth of learning, 
such a variety and abundance of illustration, and such rare elo- 
quence as to place him in the very front rank of American 
orators. Others may have excelled him, and doubtless did, in 
the possession of one or more of the higher qualities of the 
orator, but I know none that combined a greater number of the 
elements that constitute an effective public speaker. 

His memory was simply amazing. He seemed to have for- 
gotten nothing that he ever read. It was the habit of members 
to go to him to solve their historical and literary difficulties, 
and I never heard of a single instance in which he failed them. 
This faculty gave him an immense advantage in debate and 
often secured him the victory over competitors that were not so 
highly gifted. His mind was decidedly of a literary cast, and 
hence he adorned his speeches with select thoughts from English 
literature and the classics. 



Life and Clicii-actcr of Samuel S. Cox. 153 

Whether discussing a great political problem or inerel}- some 
subject that unexpectedly arose in the House, literary gems may 
be found alike sparkling through his speeches. They fell un- 
bidden from his lips. In many cases his productions were in- 
terspersed with a rare and delicious humor. It was a humor, 
too, all his own. It welled up from his generous heart and 
sparkled through his speeches like cr^-stal fountains by the way- 
side. Satire was seldom the object of it. It was gentle, good- 
natured, and betokened the kindly heart that gave it birth. 

It has been suggested that if he had not indulged this fac- 
ulty so much he would have achieved greater results. I do not 
believe this. Mirth is pre-eminently human. Man alone is 
stirred by it, and he who can successfully produce it is sure to 
reach the human heart, and that is the easiest avenue to the 
mind. Would we willingly give up the wit and humor of the 
myriad-minded Shakespeare? How barren would seem even 
his unsurpassed productions with his flashes of mirth blotted 
out. No one will dispute that much of their efficacy would 
then be gone. 

It was the rare good fortune of our brother to become identi- 
fied with one of the noblest institutions of modern civilization. 
The Life-Saving Service owes its present organization mainly 
to his efforts. To place it upon a sure foundation and promote 
its efficiency he bestowed untiring industry and his ablest intel- 
lectual efforts. It was my rare privilege to hear him deliver in 
this House his greatest speech in support of that service. It 
occurred during the second session of the Forty-fifth Congress. 
He occupied the same seat that by permission of this House he 
last occupied here and which he uninterruptedly occupied for 
many years. A number of speeches had been made; his was 
the last. 



154 Address of Air. Maisli.^ of Penttsylvania, on the 

No especial interest was manifested in the subject; nothings 
to distinguish it from the ordinary discussions that daily take 
place here. It was in the morning, after the routine business 
had been disposed of, when Mr. Cox arose. The attention of 
members was gradually arrested. The calling of pages by the 
clapping of hands grew less and less frequent as he proceeded. 
In a short while the members sat enchained by the eloquence of 
the address. Now and then there was applause, but when he 
stopped a profound silence pervaded the House. 

In a moment or two it was broken by a member near by ex- 
tending his congratulations to him. He was quickly followed 
by another; then two or three pressed forward to take him by 
the hand; then almost simultaneously a score or more ap- 
proached him, and finally, in less time tlnn I can describe it, 
every member was on his way up the aisle towards him to ex- 
tend his congratulations. No attempt was made to continue 
business. The Speaker of the House acquiesced in the tempo- 
rary interruption, and only called the members to order when 
they had resumed their seats. I sat immediately opposite to 
liim during the delivery of the speech, and was the last mem- 
ber to grasp him by the hand. As I did so I saw that he had 
been moved to tears, and not a word passed between us. 

I doubt very much, Mr. Speaker, whether in the whole his- 
tory of this body any speech had such an instantaneous effect. 
It was a high tribute to the orator. Ay, it was more. It was 
an homage paid to his subject. As he so felicitously put it: 

Humanity, more beautiful than art and more profound tfian science, 
has bent over tlie tempestuous seas her grand ethereal bow, unfolding its 
hues of promise as an everlasting covenant with heaven. 

He struck the key-note of humanity, and all within its sound 
responded to its spell. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 15S 

. You may search in vain for a more graphic and thrilling piece 
of word-painting than Mr. Cox's description of the wreck of 
the Ameriquc in this speech. It consists of a succession of the 
most startling scenes, drawn with such intense reality as to 
strike one with wonder and admiration. 

The concluding paragraph of that address presents in words 
better than I can command the motives that actuated our brother 
in devoting his best efforts to the noble service whose object is 
the rescuing of human lives from the dangers of the deep. He 
says : 

Mr. Speaker, I have spent the best part of my life in this pubUc serv- 
ice; most of it has been like writing in water. The reminiscences of 
party wrangUng and political strife seem to me like nebulae of the past, 
without form and almost void. Gladly I would, if I could, for many 
reasons growing out of personal inconvenience and party competency, 
reverse much that I have done here. Confessing so much inadequacy, 
recalling so many who have come and gone from this House — gone 
many of them to another sphere, and, I hope and trust, a better world — 
I would gladly lay down my commission and turn to other duties which 
the lapse of time admonishes me should have attention. But what little 
I have accomplished in connection with this Life-Saving Service is com- 
pensation "sweeter than the honey in the honey-comb." It is its own 
exceeding great reward. It speaks to me in the voices of the rescued; 
ay, in tears of speechless feeling ; speaks of resurrection from death, 

" In spite of wreck and tempest's roar, 
In spite of false lights on the shore; " 

speaks of a faith triumphant over all fears in the better elements of our 
human nature. It sounds like the undulations of the Sabbath bell, ring- 
ing in peace and felicity. It comes to me in the words of Him who, re- 
gardless of His own life, gave it freely that other lives might be saved. 

Humanity and civilization should walk white-handed along with gov- 
ernment. They strengthen and save society. In the perils which environ 
our country, from passion and prejudice, from old animosities and new 
irritations, let us do good deeds— pray hopefully that our vessel of state 
be free from leakage, collision, wreck, and loss. 



loG Address of Mr. Uliceler, of Alabama, on tlic 

Mr. Speaker, what our brother has wrought iu establishiu"- 
the Life-Saving Service of our country will constitute his en- 
during monument. So long as the sacredness of human life 
shall be properly appreciated and good men shall employ their 
lives in guarding against its perils, so long will the name of 
Samuel Sullivan Cox be cherished as one of the benefactors 
of our race. 



Address of Mr. Wheeler, of Alabama. 

Mr. Speaker: When the shadow of death passed over the 
form of Samuel Sullivan Cox the world lost a profound 
thinker and a ripe scholar, our country a devoted patriot, Con- 
gress its brightest and most accomplished member, the people 
of the South a man ever ready to defend them against wrong 
and oppression, and the poor and lowly a champion who de- 
lighted to use all his great talents in their behalf Genuine 
sorrow filled millions of hearts. A great, a good, a gifted man 
was no more. He whose life had been devoted to his country 
and to his fellow-men had left us forever. A volume of devo- 
tion and good deeds was finished, an effort in the cause of hu- 
manity had been accomplished. 

He was an intellectual giant, an encyclopedia of information, 
and a monarch of words. In the forum and in debate he was 
imperial. In the thousand or more conflicts with the ablest 
nien during the long period of his public life he was always 
victor. In the halls of Congress, like the most famous Roman 
gladiator, he was ever triumphant. 

When in the history of our country have we seen so nian\- 
virtues, such great and varied talents, such bountiful culture, 



Life and Character of Sanmel S. Cox. 157 

and such lovable qualities all bleuded together? When has a 
man lived so uui\'ersalh- loved, so devoted to friends, and so en- 
tirely without enemies as Mr. Cox? For more than forty years 
he stood amidst the storm of political strife under the calcium 
light of the severest criticism, and even his most scrutinizing 
opponents could never find a single act upon which they could 
lay the slightest foundation for censure. 

Mr. Cox' s ancestry were people of distinction and very high 
standing. His father, the Hon. Ezekiel Taylor Cox (born May 
25, 1795, died May 18, 1873), moved from New Jersey to Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, early in the century, was State senator, clerk of the 
supreme court of Ohio, United States marshal, etc. 

His grandfather was General James Cox (born October 16, 
1753, died September 12, 1810), officer in the Revolution, 
speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, member of Congress at 
the time of his death. 

His great-grandfather was Judge Joseph Cox (born August 18, 
1713, died April 17, 1801), known as a man of strong mind and 
unblemished character. 

His great-great-grandfather was James Cox (born August 18, 
1672, died April 17, 1750), a large landholder and a man highly 
respected in the community. 

His great-great-great-grandfather was Thomas Cox, who set- 
tled in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, New 
Jersey, in 1670. He was one of the twenty-four original pro- 
prietors of the province of East New Jersey. 

Mr. Cox, the sixth in descent of the persons enumerated, was 
born at Zanesville, Ohio, September 30, 1824. His quick, 
bright mind enabled him to acquire information very rapidly, 
and before he was eighteen he had so far completed his cla.ssical 
course that he was enabled to commence the studv of law. At 



158 Address of Mr. Wheeler^ of Alabama., on the 

twenty-five he was the owner and editor of the Columbus States- 
man, and from that early date he took a prominent stand among 
the men who shape and control the affairs of oi:r Government. 
At twenty-nine he was the chairman of the executive committee 
of the Democratic party of Ohio, and won great distinction in 
the campaign of 1853, during which Mr. Medill, the Democratic 
candidate, was elected governor. 

When scarcely more than thirty years of age the appointment 
as secretary of legation to Great Britain was tendered him, but 
he declined the honor. He afterwards accepted a similar posi- 
tion to represent the United States with the Peruvian Govern- 
ment. 

At thirty-two he was elected to Congress, where he at once 
took a remarkable position for a new member and so young a 
man. He continued as a member of this body with but little 
interruption from that time to the day of his death, comprising 
a period of nearly a third of a century. He was a member of 
the national convention at Chicago in 1864 which nominated 
McClellan and Pendleton, the convention which nominated 
Horatio Seymour and Frank P. Blair in New York in 1868, 
and the convention which nominated Tildeu and Hendricks at 
St. Louis in 1876. He was elected Speaker /;77 tempore of the 
House in 1876, and was minister to Turke^• during the greater 
part of the first half of Mr. Cleveland's administration. 

When minister at Constantinople a severe hemorrhage brought 
the longing wish to place his famih- in tlie shelter of home. 
Accordingly he left the East at the end of an eighteen months' 
.sojourn, after having, through great urgency and perseverance, 
consummated the treaty stipulations initiated years before by 
our Government. But, owing to the fact that treaties with 
Germany and other countries were under consideration, and 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 159 

complications might arise by a ratification at this time, this 
treaty was never acted npon by the United States Senate. 

Shortly after Mr. Cox's resignation and return he received 
the decoration of the Order of the Mejidieh from his Imperial 
Majesty, Sultan Abdul Hamid, the decoration of the Order of 
the Shefakat having already been bestowed on the minister's 
wife in Turkey. 

For nearly a third of a century Mr. Cox was a bright and 
shiningr figure in the affairs of the Government. 

God places men in the various spheres of life to carry out His 
purposes; and the entire life of this statesman shows how essen- 
tial his presence was to the great cause he served so well. His 
voice, his magic powers, his sympathy were always on the side 
of humanity. This was characteristic of the man. Whether 
Jew or Gentile, Moslem or Christian, foreign or to the manner 
born, black or white, slave or free, any man, if oppressed, found 
in Samuel Sullivan Cox a champion and defender. We re- 
member his successful labors for the overworked of all occupa- 
tions, for craftsmen of all trades and professions, and for the 
downtrodden of all climes and nations. 

When the Irish were oppressed by the British Government, 
the heart and eloquence of Mr. Cox were enlisted in their de- 
fense. When passion and hatred pursued the people' of the 
South, Mr. Cox, at the risk of political popularity, sometimes 
even of political existence, placed all his influence between 
them and threatening danger. 

Who has not read and felt the pathos of these lines? 

Never, sister, never, was told by human breath. 

What they behold. 

O'er whom has rolled 
The one dark wave of death. 



160 Address of Mr. Wheeler^ of Alabama^ on the 

In the whirl and turmoil of busy life and the constant carni- 
val of earthly ambition, these words rise up in our thoughts: 
" If a man die shall he live again?" 

All hearts ask the same great question, some in fear and 
doubt, but all in hope; and there are few in which this hope 
does not crystallize into conviction. Not only will all men 
live again in another world, but great and gifted minds like Mr. 
Cox, who have impressed themselves upon the affairs of men, 
will live in their works, and the influences for good which they 
exerted during life will continue during years and centuries to 
come. 

The effects of some of the labors of Mr. Cox will be felt dur- 
ing all time. Not while the sun shines above the mortals of 
this earth; not while flowers bloom and give forth their fra- 
grance; not while the noisy torrents rush down the mountain 
side; not while the sluggish, sinuous stream winds its way from 
plain to sea will the efforts of Mr. Cox in behalf of the Life- 
Saving Ser\ace of the United States be iinfelt or forgotten. 

In a speech upon this subject, June 4, 1878, which has been 
regarded as one of the most effective ever delivered in Congress, 
he showed clearly his intense gratification at seeing the im- 
portant work about to be established. Towards the close of 
his speech, Mr. Cox spoke of his long service and how in some 
respects it had not been satisfactory to him, stating how gladly 
he would at any time have laid down his commission and re- 
turned to other duties which so earnestly demanded liis atten- 
tion. He then closed his speech in these words, which I read 
from page 4094 of the Record, second session Forty-fifth 
Congress : 

But what little I have accomplished in connection with this Life-Saving 
Service is compensation " sweetei- than the honey in the honey-comb." 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 161 

It is its own exceeding great reward. It speaks to me in the voices of 
the rescued ; ay, in tears of speechless feeling ; speaks of resurrection 
from death — 

In spite of wreck and tempest's roar. 

In spite of false lights on the shore ; 

speaks of a faith triumphant over all fears in the better elements of our 
human nature. It sounds like the undulations of the Sabbath bell, ring- 
ing in peace and felicity. It comes to me in the words of Him who, regard- 
less of His own life, gave it freely that others might be saved. 

Humanity and civilization should walk white-handed along with gov- 
ernment. They strengthen and save society. In the perils which environ 
our country, from passion and prejudice, from old animosities and new 
irritations, let us do good deeds — pray hopefully that our vessel of state 
be free from leakage, collision, wreck, and loss. Send out the life-boat ; 
fire the line over the imperiled vessel ; free the hawser for the life-car, and 
then with stout hearts and thankful souls lift up our prayer to Him who 
holds the sea in the hollow of His hand. 

Immediately after the close of this speech the bill was passed 
withotit, as far as the Record shows, one dissenting vote. 

I remember years ago reading a sermon from an eminent di- 
vine of Boston, Mr. Cook, discountenancing a religion of sor- 
row and moaning. He said, " Let it be a thing of sunshine, 
mirth, and happiness. Let religion and all connected with it 
be joyous. Let the walks which lead in the paths of God be 
the happiest which can be pursued." Mr. Cox's religious life 
reminded me of this sermon of years ago. He did not regard 
sadness aiid repining and making others sad as an acceptable 
demonstration of religious convictions. He was a Christian who 
believed that being happy and making others happy and doing 
good to mankind was the part of a true Christian, and during 
all his long life he was guided by these principles. 

When quite young, Mr. Cox, in his open, frank manner, es- 
poused the cause of Christ. 

He was a devoted student of the Bible and knew much of it 
H. Mis. 243 11 



1G2 Address of Air. 11 'heeler, of Alabama, on tJie 

by heart. In his early boyhood he accomplished the memo- 
rable task of learning and reciting, almost without a mistake, 
the entire epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. In 1848, through 
the influence of Rev. T. J. .Stockton, who, although himself a 
Methodist, counseled this step, Mr. Cox united with the Pres- 
byterian Church at Cincinnati, under the pastorate of Rev. Dr. 
Fisher. On his return to his home in Zanesville, in 1850, his 
connection was transferred to the Putnam Church in that place, 
under the Rev. Dr. Addison Kingsbury, the venerable pioneer 
pastor of that church. 

I have not, indeed few men, if any, possess the power of de- 
scription to do even meager justice to the great ability and 
scholarly eloquence so often displayed by Mr. Cox. His ora- 
tory was calm and generally dispassionate, but at the same time 
forcible and convincing, and his advocacy of the cause he es- 
poused was always fearless and determined. His methods were 
open and chivalrous, his generosity broad and deep and strong, 
his friendship true and enduring. 

In all his debates he sought to conduct his arguments and 
controversies with the utmost consideration for the feelings of 
others; and although he finally became victor and brought all 
opponents to the ground, it was not done roughly, for like a 
skillful wrestler he preferred to see his foe fall lightly and by 
his gentle manner seemed to prepare a bed of roses for the re- 
ception of his vanquished rival. 

Those who ventured to assail him were, however, never 
allowed to escape. His repartee, though devoid of bitterness, 
was nevertheless crushing in the extreme; yet there was none 
of that harshness which leaves a lasting sting. It is true that 
sometimes the attack on him was of a character to require and 
call for a severe retort, and all who ventured upon such a line 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 163 

of debate soon learned the temper and form of his trenchant 
blade. There were few who had the temerity to hazard such a 
conflict; but we all remember his discomfiture of the distin- 
guished General Butler in the Forty-third Congress, and his 
crushing repartee to the humorous Mr. Horr, eight years later 
in the Forty-seventh. 

A characteristic of Mr. Cox was his charming humor and 
brilliant wit, and many who expressed surprise that a man so 
able, cultured, pure, and gifted was not called to the highest 
office which it was possible for his admiring countrymen to be- 
stow, believed that this remarkable wit was the only cause which 
retarded his advancement; but in this I think they were mis- 
taken. His humor always did good and never harm. He 
seldom used this faculty merely for the purpose of amusing his 
audience, but put it into play when it was evident that by so 
doing a desired, and frequently a very important, object could 
be attained. 

We all remember how often he quelled a storm in the House 
of Representatives by some pleasant witticism, almost instantly 
changing the scene from one of angry dispute to one of most 
pleasant hilarity. 

It is a mistake to say that this detracted in any way from Mr. 
Cox's dignity or the great esteem which was universally felt 
for him. 

I think the real reason why Mr. Cox did not receive the 
honors of office which would naturally have fallen to the lot of 
siich a man was owing to his never seeking any such advance- 
ment. 

That he would have honored the Presidency no one who 
knew him would for a moment doubt. No one of his time 
was better equipped than he with regard to all matters of gov- 



164 Address of Mr. IVheckr.^ of Alabama^ on the 

ernment, and in general information and knowledge of poli- 
tics and history the superiority of his attainments was remark- 
able. 

I donbt if any member of either House of Congress ever 
equaled Mr. Cox as a worker. He delivered lectures, wrote 
and published most interesting books, including such valuable 
and popular works as Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 
Why We Laugh, The Pleasures of Prinkipo, and The Diver- 
sions of a Diplomate. 

His whole public life showed that he was always guided by 
a conscientious conviction of duty. He was one of the few 
members who opposed the bill to increase and at the same time 
to give back salaries to Congressmen; but his crowning effort 
was the establishment of the Life-Saving Service, which has 
already rescued some twelve or fifteen thousand lives and some 
tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. 

He also attended most scrupulously to every detail which 
devolved upon him as a Congressman, and with all this he 
found time to join with and assist Mrs. Cox in the social 
duties which pertained to the family of so eminent and widely 
known a statesman, as well as to obey frequent demands to 
attend dinners and banquets to which his presence seemed 
almost essential. This involved much intellectual effort, as a 
good and new speech was expected of Mr. Cox on all occa- 
sions of this character. 

His wonderful ability to accomplish so much was due to un- 
usual brain power, vivid imagination, perfect command of lan- 
guage, and remarkable memory, all supported by an energy 
and force which seemed irresistible. His rapidity of thought 
is illustrated by the article which gave him the sobriquet of 
"Sunset." It wa^ written in less than twentv minutes, when 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 165 

he was still very young. I will give it as it appeared in the 
Ohio Statesman thirty-seven years ago: 

A GREAT OLD SUNSET. 

What a peculiar sunset was that of last night ! How glorious the storm, 
and how splendid the setting of the sun I We do not remember ever to 
have seen the like on our round globe. The scene opened in the west, 
with a whole horizon full of a golden interpenetrating luster, which 
colored the foliage and brightened every object into its own rich dyes. 
The colors grew deeper and richer, until the golden luster was transfused 
into a storm-cloud, full of finest lightning, which leaped in dazzling zig- 
zags all round and over the city. The wind arose with fury, the slender 
shrubs and giant trees made obeisance to its majesty. Some even snapped 
before its force. The strawberry beds and grass plots "turned up their 
whites" to see Zephyrus march by. As the rain came, and the pools 
formed, and the gutters hurried away, thunders roared grandly, and the 
fire-bells caught the e,xcitement and rung with hearty chorus. The south 
and east received copious showers, and the west all at once brightened up 
in a long, polished belt of azure, worthy of a Sicilian sky. Presently a 
cloud appeared in the azure belt, in the form of a castellated city. It 
became more vivid, revealing strange forms of peerless fanes and alabaster 
temples, and glories rare and grand in this mundane sphere. It reminds 
us of Wordsworth's splendid verse in his Excursion: 

The appearance instantaneously disclosed 
Was of a mighty city, boldly say 
A wilderness of buildings, sinking far 
And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth. 
Far sinking into splendor vWthout end! 

But the city vanished only to give place to another isle, where the most 
beautiful forms of foliage appeared, imaging a paradise in the distant and 
purified air. The sun, wearied of the elemental commotion, sank behind 
the green plains of the west.' The " great eye in the heavens, " however, 
went not down without a dark brow hanging over its departing light. 
The rich flush of the unearthly light had passed and the rain had ceased; 
when the solemn church bells pealed, the laughter of children rang out, 
and joyous after the storm is heard the carol of birds; while the forked 
and purple weapon of the skies still darted illumination around the Star- 



166 Address of Mr. JFJieeler^ of Alabama, on the 

ling College, trying to rival its angles and leap into its dark windows. 
Candles are lighted. The piano strikes up. We feel it is good to have 
a home — good to be on the earth where such revelations of beauty and 
power may be made. And as we can not refrain from reminding our 
readers of everything wonderful in our city, we have begun and ended 
our feeble etching of a sunset which comes so rarely that its glory should 
be committed to immortal type. 

While Mr. Cox was himself a statesman, while his real life- 
work led and held him among other statesmen whose duty it 
was to guide the public counsels of our country, he was yet no 
stranger to the calm pursuits of science, and, had not his career 
been determined by early association with the life of both father 
and grandfather, he would have devoted himself to those scien- 
tific or those literary pursuits to which his early inclination led 
him. 

Knowing this, we can better understand the pleasure he de- 
rived from his duties connected with the Smithsonian, and can 
appreciate his sincerity in alluding, as he frequently did, to his 
association with the regents and learned scientists of the insti- 
tution as a source of keen enjoyment to him. 

It was upon the motion of Mr. Cox that the Board of Re- 
gents of the Smithsonian Institution elected as their chancel- 
lors Chief-Justice Chase in 1865 and Chief-Justice Fuller in 
1889. 

Mr. Cox was a firm siipporter of the broad policy proposed 
by Professor Henry, which has been so long and successfully 
carried out by the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. 

Undoubtedly the influence of his friend, Stephen A. Doug- 
las, one of the regents when Mr. Cox entered Congress, had 
much to do in forming his mind and in shaping his course in 
regard to the institution. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 167 

His conception of the policy best adapted to carry out the 

object of the founder is strikingly shown in his eulogy of Mr. 

Douglas, in which he speaks as follows: 

In February, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, while a Senator 
from the State, was appointed one of the regents of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, and continued a member of the board until the time of his 
death, on the morning of the 3d of June, 1861. From the pursuits of 
his life and the pecuharities of his course it might be thought that he was 
not well qualified to discharge properly the duty of a trustee of a fund 
intended for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. But 
this would be a mistake, for although he had given no special attention 
to any branch of science, yet his mind was of that comprehensive cast 
which enabled him duly to appreciate the nature of the bequest and the 
general principles of the different plans which had been proposed for car- 
rying it into execution. It is true, as I am informed, that before he was 
elected a regent he had adopted the popular idea that the bequest was 
intended merely to diffuse useful knowledge among the people of the 
United States, yet when he came to study the precise words of the will 
of the founder and caught, as he immediately did, the peculiar idea of 
the object intended, namely, the extension of the bounds of science and 
not merely the teaching of what is already known, he fully adopted the 
views on which tlie present organization of the institution is based, and 
ever after continued a warm advocate and an able supporter of the 
measures now in succe-sful operation for the realization of the liberal and 
enlightened intention of James Smithson. 

It is but natural that the shock of Mr. Cox's death was se- 
verely felt by this scientific institution. Having served with 
him on the board, I can well testify to the high regard in which 
he was held by this body, which included men of the greatest 
distinction. Mr. William Walter Phelps, now our minister to 
Germany, was the colleague of Mr. Cox and myself during the 
preceding Congress. 

At a meeting last January it became my painful duty to pro- 
pose that a committee be appointed to prepare suitable resolu- 



168 Address of Mr. Wheeler^ of Alabama^ on the 

tions upon the death of our associate. The record of the 
Smithsonian, made pursuant thereto, is in these words : 

At a meeting of the Board of Regents held January 8, 1890, Mr. 
Wheeler called the attention of the board to the death of their late col- 
league, Hon. S. S. Cox, and on his motion it was — 

Resolved, That a committee be appointed, of which the secretary shall 
be chairman, which shall be authorized to prepare resolutions on the serv- 
ices and character of the late S. S. Cox, and to make the same of record. 

The chairman announced as the committee the secretary, General 
Wheeler, Dr. Welling, Mr. Lodge; who reported as follows: 

To the Board of Regents : 

Your committee report that the Hon. S. S. Cox was first appointed a 
Regent of the Smithsonian Institution December 19, 1861, and that he 
filled that office, except for intervals caused by public duties, to the time 
of his death. 

While he was a regular attendant at all the meetings of the board, he 
was ever ready to advance the interests of the Institution and of science, 
either as a regent or as a member of Congress, and although such men as 
Hamlin, Fessenden, Colfax, Chase, Garfield, Sherman, Gray, and W aite, in 
a list comprising Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Chief-Justices, and Senators 
of the United States, were his associates, there were none whose service 
was longer or more gratefully to be remembered, nor perhaps any to 
whom the Institution owes more than to Mr. Cox. 

The regard in which his brother regents held Mr. Cox's accuracy of 
characterization, and his instinctive recognition of all that is worthiest of 
honor in other men, may be inferred from the eulogies which he was re- 
quested by them to deliver, among which may be particularly mentioned 
the one at the commemoration in honor of Professor Henry in the House 
of Representatives; but though these only illustrate a very small part of 
his services as a regent, your committee are led by their consideration to 
recall that his first act upon your board was the preparation and delivery 
of an address at the request of the regents on their late colleague, Stephen 
A. Douglas, and that on this occasion he used words which your commit- 
tee permit themselves to adopt, as being in their view singularly charac- 
teristic of Mr. Cox himself 

"It was not merely as one of its regents that he showed himself the 
true and enlightened friend of objects kindred to those of this establish- 
ment. He ever advocated measures which served to advance knowledge 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 169 

and promote the progress of humanity. The encouragement of the fine 
arts, the rewarding of discoverers and inventors, the organization of ex- 
ploring expeditions, as well as the general diffusion of education, were all 
objects of his special regard." 

In view of these facts it is — 

Resolved, Tha.t in the death of Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox the 
Smithsonian Institution has suffered the irreparable loss of a long-tried 
friend, the Board of Regents of a most valued associate and active mem- 
ber during fifteen years of service, and the country of one of its most dis- 
tinguished citizens. 

Resolved, That the Board of Regents desire to express their deep sym- 
pathy with the bereaved family of the deceased, and that a copy of these 
resolutions be transmitted to the widow of their late associate. 

It is hard to realize that the three strong men, Cox, Randall, 
and Kelley, who consecrated their lives to duty in this Hall, 
and who at the close of the last session were firm and healthy 
and determined, should have gone from us forever. We look 
at the seats they occupied so long, and they are no longer 
there. A few weeks ago we met here to pronounce our eulo- 
gies upon Mr. Kelley; in a few weeks we shall quietly enter 
the Hall to do honor to Mr. Randall; and to-day the House 
holds a special session that its members may utter their heart- 
felt expressions commemorative of the virtues of Mr. Cox. He 
has crossed the river, the dark, placid, unfathomable River of 
Death. He has entered the Ehsian Fields; he is resting under 
the shade of the trees. Peaceful may be that rest! In life he 
was invincible; in death he is immortal. 

Mr. Speaker, the obsequies of Mr. Cox have been touchingly 
described by other gentlemen during these services, but only 
passing allusion has been made to the beautiful addresses of 
Dr. Milburn, Dr. Talmage, and Dr. Deems. These exercises 
would not be complete without these tributes. I will there- 
fore incorporate them as a part of my remarks. 



170 Address of Mr. Wheeler., of Alabama, on the 

At the church the procession was headed by the clergy, led 
by Charles E. Deems, D. D. , LL,. D., pastor of the Church of 
the Strangers, a church Mr. Cox frequently attended. He was 
followed by Rev. Dr. Milburn, Chaplain of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, accompanied by Rev. Dr. Talmage, of Brooklyn. 
Then followed the pall-bearers with the ren:ains, and then the 
family and friends. 

Dr. Deems read the sentences out of the Church Service: 

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord ; he that believeth in 
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he hve; and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in Me shall never die. 

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter 
day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, 
yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
eyes shall behold, and not another. 

We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry 
nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed 
be the name of the Lord. 

After the congregation were seated, Rev. Dr. Milburn read 
in a most impressive manner the fifteenth chapter of the First 
Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, and after an anthem 
proceeded to deliver the following eulogium. 

Rev. Dr. Milburn said: 

Samuel Sulliv.-^n Cox, the humorist, the writer, the speaker, a servant 
of the people, an officer of the State, a most human-hearted man, has 
left us, and we, the city, the nation, are the poorer for his going. There was 
in him a vein of admirable wit united to an excellent understanding and 
a rare power of sympathetic speech, and these, with an indefatigable in- 
dustry and dauntless energy and courage, early in life brought hun to the 
front, and throughout his days kept him there, in a position of influence 
and power to which he was fully entitled. The country can ill afford to 
spare, in what should have been the maturity of his manhood, one so 
richly endowed by nature, labor, large and varied experience, whose soul 
was wedded to its honor, and to the happiness, interest, and welfare of 
his fellow-men. As his friends, we mourn our irreparable loss, while the 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 171 

whole land sorrows for the departure of one of its most faithful, valiant, 
and devoted sons. 

Sprung from a brave old Revolutionary stock, born in Ohio, one of a 
family of fourteen children, taught from his earliest days to work with per- 
sistence and energy, he gained a university education as the fruit of his 
own toil, and then enlarged his mmd and quickened his sympathies by 
wide travel, making acquaintance with many climates, cities, of men, and 
governments, and thus prepared himself for the work he was to do. He 
first tried his hand as a writer for the newspaper press and also as the 
author of a book of travels, but soon entered the Capitol of the nation as 
a member of the House of Representatives, where his brilliant parts at 
once gained him distinction. 

Throughout his Congressional career of nearly thirty years, he secured 
and maintained to the last the kindly regard, the warm admiration, and 
personal friendship not only of his political associates, but of the mem- 
bers on the other side of the floor, and in the bead-roll of his friends and 
admirers there will be found as many opponents as members of his own 
party. Trenchant and powerful in debate, he used the weapons of re- 
search, clear statement, argument, keen wit, and an ever-present humor, 
and wherever he inflicted wounds they were always salved by kindness 
and mirth, and all canker was removed. 

Earnest in his political convictions and ardent in their advocacy, he 
was yet more earnest and ardent in matters outside of politics that con- 
cerned the happiness of his fellow-men. Notable illustrations of this are 
found in our Life-Savinc; Service, of which he may be said to be the 
father, and in his championship of the cause of the hard-worked and 
underpaid clerks and carriers of the postal service. His best and highest 
public utterances, which had the whole force of his character in them, 
were in behalf of a larger toleration, a sweeter and more practical 
humanity. 

When one reviews his work in Congress, and knows the immense la- 
bors he performed there, in the profound study of all questions vital to the 
nation's welfare, in committees, on the floor, and at the Departments, it 
would seem enough to tax any man's utmost strength and fill his whole 
time; yet such was his unwearied industry and elastic energy, that he 
managed to write book after book which have instructed and delighted 
great bodies of readers by their intelligence, vivacity, their wisdom, humor, 
and wit. 

I must leave it to others, to his colleagues in Congress, to speak of his 



172 Address of Mr. IVheeler, of Alabama, on the 

political services and the debt of gratitude the country owes his memory. 
This place is sacred to the consideration of character. How did he use 
those extraordinary talents which he possessed? Were they for himself 
supremely ? A less selfish man than Samuel Sullivan Cox has never 
appeared in the political life of his country. He had a large heart, ten- 
der sympathies, a kind appreciation, and a power to interpret the charac- 
ter of all with whom he came in contact. Noble as was his head his 
heart was still nobler; and throughout his career he strove to help, to 
cheer, to befriend those who were in need of friendship. There was a 
light in his eye, a music in his voice, a grasp in the hand, a cheerfulness 
of speech, a heartiness of manner, which lifted burdens from the shoulders 
of those who came near him. His honor was unstained. Although he 
was connected with the politics of this city and of the country in their 
darkest hours, when corruption ran riot and the infamous scramble for 
place and pelf was common, the pitch never defiled him, his good name 
was never assailed even by the tongue of scandal. He bore himself with 
a lofty rectitude; his integrity was incorruptible. 

Amid the dance of society, the roar of business, the greed for office 
and money, we pau.se beside this coffin in the stillness of this sacred place 
to recall the form and features of one whose nature was large enough to 
offer the generous hospitality of recognition and sympathy to all sorts and 
conditions of men, whether they were Roman Catholic or Protestant, 
Jew or Mohammedan; and who in the battle of life ever struck with all 
his might for the cause of the true, the right, the good. One who knew 
him best has assured me that his piety towards God was as genuine, deep, 
and reverent as his charity towards his fellow-men was large, unaffected, 
and fervent. He drew the inspiration of his conduct and character from 
the truths and faith of our holy religion. 

We speak of our friend as dead. This casket contains his outer cover- 
ing; the man himself lives. He looked with those eyes, spoke with that 
tongue, those lips, used those hands, for there was that within the body 
which employed these organs as instrumciits. The man himself has 
passed through the door, invisible to us, into a world not of ghosts, but a 
world of substance — of human forms. He has gone forth clothed with 
immortality, and stands to-day in the presence of his Father and his God, 
of his Saviour and ours. He has carried with him all the fruits of his 
true and kindly words, brave and generous deeds, noble conduct and en- 
durance; for in that sphere character alone survives, and every man shall 
find the place for which he has fitted himself on earth. We can not tell 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 1 73 

what things may be given him to do, but we are sure that his higher Hfe 
in that glorious world unseen by us will be one of activity, of ministry to 
others, perhaps to us, in ways we can not understand. Shall not the 
blessed revelation of this truth, of the life and immortality brought to 
hght in the Gospel, bring comfort to our hearts, consolation to our sense 
of bereavement ? 

" Brief life is here our portion, 
Brief sorrow, sliort-lived care; 
The life that knows no ending, 
The tearless life, is there. 
Oh, happy retribution, 
Short toil, eternal rest; 
For mortals and for sinners 
A mansion with the blest." 

Shall not these truths irradiate our own lives, inspire our characters, 
helping us a.Tthey do*to take the measure of life's values, to place in right 
proportion the world on this side the grave and on the other. 

Will not the beautiful example of this man who the other day walked 
at our side, talked, worked, laughed, and wept with us, but is now beyond 
the stars, bring to our toil-worn brains and hearts peace this day ? There 
will be little profit to us in gathering about this coffined form to pay this 
last office of love to the memory of our friend unless we go hence more 
reverent towards God and more kindly to our neighbor, reading the 
minds and conduct of others with a inore charitable eye, and carrying 
ourselves with a more tolerant and affectionate bearing towards them. 

This man bore himself to the age of three-score years and five, not 
only untainted by the world, but unworried with it. No frown of dis- 
content, no scowl of misanthropy, was ever seen upon his brow; no com- 
plaint of the emptiness of the world or of its vanity was prompted by that 
cheery heart. He wrought for the welfare of others, and in so doing 
found his own, for love is its own exceeding great reward. Let us take 
this spirit with us from this hallowed place, and we shall depart truer and 
braver citizens, purer men, worthy to live, and not afraid to die. 

Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D., tlien delivered the follow- 
ing address: 

The nation weeps. What a wide, deei), awful vacuum the departure 
of such a man as Samuel S. Cox leaves in the world ! We shall not see 
his like again. It will be useless to try to describe to another generation 



174 Address of Mr. Wheeler., of Alaba»ia, on the 

who or what he was like. He was the first and the last of that kind of 
man. He was without predecessor and will be without successor. What 
a genial, gracious, magnificent soul he was ! And every year he lived 
made to the world a new revelation of his admirable qualities. Within 
the past few weeks I traveled in his wake across the American con- 
tinent, and I heard everywhere of the ovations he had received and the 
superb impressions he had made, cities and Territories and States casting 
their crowns at his feet. 

And while these tempests are raging on land and on sea and the life- 
saving stations have rescued, within a few hours, the crews of thirty ships, 
we are called upon to perform the last office over the body of him who 
was the chief champion of that national benevolence for which every 
sailor on the seas feels thankful. 

And was there ever a truer friend ? Tell me, ye who live in the high 
places of the earth, and the poor who last night, while his body lay in 
state, wept over this casket ! There is hardly any one here to whom he 
has not done a kindness. 

Did he not speak for you a good word or write a generous commen- 
dation or give you the smile of encouragement in some exigency ? How 
many people he helped ; how many perplexities he disentangled ; how 
many bright utterances he strewed in the pathway of others, no one can 
remember save the God who remembers all. 

Firm as a rock, brilliant as a star, artless as a child, pure as a woman. 
God endowed him for a good purpose with a resiliency of wit, a faculty 
of impersonation, and an irresistible mimicry and a dramatic power that 
were inexhaustible. How much the world owes to such a nature we can 
not tell. It is often a greater good to cause a laugh than to start a tear. 
We all cry enough, God knows, and have enough to cry about, and we 
need no impulse in that direction. But he who can scatter our gloom by 
innocent merriment has been to us an emancipator. Solomon was right 
when he said, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Wit is of two 
kinds, that which stings and galls and angers and makes the eye flash and 
the heart burn ; the other is that which illumines, sets free, strengthens 
for another contest, puts us in good humor with the world and makes us 
renounce our follies. The one kind of wit is the lightning that rives, but 
the other is the dew that refreshes. Of that last kind was the wit of our 
departed friend. 

He never laughed at anything except that which ought to Ije laughed 
at. There were in it no innuendoes that tipped both ways; notiiing viper- 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 175 

ine ; nothing that would have been discordant to recall if he had died 
the next hour. Prince of innocent pleasantry, sanctified reparteeist, our 
friend shall live in our memories like a sweet song too soon closed, like a 
banquet too soon ended, like a picture over which too soon the veil has 
dropped. 

Good-by, old friend of years ! Together we rejoiced in this world. 
Together we shall rejoice in a brighter world. You have gone because 
your work was ended. We toil on becaiise there is yet something for us 
here to do. Come down to the gate and meet us when it is our turn to 
enter. Then on the emerald banks of the crystal sea we will walk arm in 
arm and talk over the scenes of earth by which we were disciplined for 
the raptures that never die. Spirit blest! I hail thee from this dark 
autumnal hour on earth, thou of the June morning celestial ! 

My sister, bereft! God will help you in this sad liour. Lean hard on 
the everlasting Arm. Thank God that this genial soul was permitted to 
walk by your side so long, your pride and your joy, and be comforted 
that you did just as well by iiim as he did by you. Witness the long 
watchings of his two great sicknesses. Witness your life-time devotion. 
Where he went you went all these years, and none of the enchanting 
places of foreign travel which he described by his graceful and potent 
pen were as bright or beautiful as the place where you shall meet him 
soon. He will not forget you any more than you will forget him. 

In this dark world of sin and pain 
We only meet to part again; 
But when we reacli the Iieavenly shore 
We there shall meet to part no more. 
The hope that we shall see that day 
Should chase our present griefs away. 

Dr. Deems read the commitment service from the Book of 
Common Prayer, and closed the service with an extemporaneous 
prayer nearly as follows: 

Almighty and most merciful God, our heavenly Father, who in Thy 
wise providence hast taken from our midst the spirit of our departed 
brother, we do most humbly bow to the holy will which has brought this 
great bereavement. We do most humbly and heartily thank Thee for 
the existence and career of our brother. We thank Thee for every good 
thing that came into his life. For his radiant childhood, his bright boy- 



176 Address of Mr. IVheelcr, of Alaba»ia^ on the 

hood, and his energetic manhood, receive our humble thanks, good Lord. 
For all his intellectual and moral endowments; for his industry, patience, 
perseverance, and genial temper; for his success in striving to turn aside 
from evil ways; for his unselfishness, his genuine devotion to humanity, 
his love of his fellow-men, his patriotic devotion to his country, his 
ability to serve his fellow-citizens in so many and so important directions; 
for his example in leading a clean life in an environment in which so 
many have been corrupted ; for the thousands of tears he has wiped from 
the eyes of widows and orphans and strangers and the oppressed and 
perplexed and poor, and for the thousands of smiles he has kindled on 
so many sad faces, we render Thee most humble and hearty thanksgiv- 
ing, good Lord. For his home of unsullied purity and sunny love, for 
his position of conspicuous honor and usefulness, for the great hosts of 
friends by which he was able to surround himself from his boyhood to his 
death, for his reverence for the Christian faith and the pleasure he had 
in its strengthening, comforting, and uplifting influence, we render most 
humble and hearty thanksgiving, good Lord. 

And now, most holy Father, we beseech Thee to sanctify the sorrow 
which hath come with his death. Into the arms of immortal love take 
our dear sister, his bereaved wife. In the lonely hours when she listens 
and waits in vain for the familiar foot-fall and the sunny smile of his 
presence, and he does not come, and her heart grows lonely, speak to 
her in the accents of divine affection and say to her, "Thy Maker is thy 
husband." Let his departure be by Thy grace turned into a blessing to 
all his kindred, so that his memory may not be only a precious and fra- 
grant treasure, but also a high and sustaining incentive to lives of good- 
ness and purity. May all his friends and associates, in private and public 
life, feel that, this fountain of beneficence being sealed, they must open 
their own lives for ampler usefulness. 

And now, Lord, amid these surroundings, we pray that the silent benefi- 
cent influence of Thy Holy Spirit may be exerted upon the people in 
the Congressional district which Thy departed servant represented. In- 
cline them to choose for his successor a man whose hands and whose 
heart are clean of falsehood, bribery, and corruption. Pour Thy Spirit 
upon our whole land and nation. Grant Thy grace to all our public 
men. I^et there come from the grave of Thy servant a call to them all 
to turn from every evil way to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. 
May all who make and expound and execute the laws of this land be 
inwardly devout servants of the living God, and outwardly examples of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 177 

justice, mercy, and truth. O Thou, who hast permitted this people to 
govern themselves, grant unto them the spirit of wisdom and of a sound 
mind. May they all learn that no man who is bad in private can be 
trusted to be good in public. May they never elevate to places of power 
and trust men who are false, cowardly, licentious, or profane. May the 
people have grace to select for their public servants men who fear God 
and fear nothing else in heaven or earth or hell; and so may we come to 
be that people of whom the nations of the earth shall say, "Blessed is the 
people whose God is the Lord." And so may the land which our brother 
loved, and for which he lived and in whose service he died, grow in all 
true greatness and be an example to the nations of all the earth. Hear 
us, Holy Father, we do most humbly beseech Thee, and answer the prayers 
of us, Thy servants, as may be best for us, granting us in this present 
world a knowledge of Thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it 
was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. 

Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy king- 
dom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this 
day our daily bread ; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those 
who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver 
us from evil. Amen. 

And now may the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep 
your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you 
always. Amen. 



ADDRESS OF MR. YODER, OF OHIO. 

Mr. Speaker: We are again called upon to pause for a time 
in the midst of the toil and cares of legislative duties, and in 
kind and loving remembrance to pay tribute to the memory of 
one of our most distinguished colleagues, and for many years a 
noted figure on the floor of this House, Samuel Sullivan Cox. 
He has gone from among us to return no more. It is due that 
we should give to him, our late friend and co-worker, that 
H. Mis. 243 12 



178 Address of Air. Voder., of Ohio, on the 

which we, too, must soon claim from those who live after us — 
a just and grateful recognition. I desire to express not only my 
own, but Ohio's sincere grief at the loss of this noted and brilliant 
man. Her cherished son, he will ever hold a marked place by 
the side of Corwin, Chase, Allen, and her other great statesmen 
who have gone from earthly honors and preferment to the richer 
and higher glories of the Master. 

Standing near him in party sympathy, as I did, I am free to 
say that but one thing inspired his actions, but one principle 
controlled his thoughts, and but one burden rested upon his 
great soul, and that was the purest of patriotism and the greatest 
good to all people. Born of distinguished parents — his grand- 
father a soldier of the war of the Revolution, a friend of Jeffer- 
son, and a member of Congress during his administration; his 
father a member of the Ohio State senate, and his mother the 
daughter of the State treasurer — he was justly proud of his line- 
age, and in dying left no shadow upon an honorable and noted 
ancestry. 

L,awyer, diplomate, traveler, poet, essayist, author, and states- 
man; alike keen, large, trite, and brilliant, his name will ever 
live in beautiful recollection by all who knew him, and in the 
hearts of admiring and grateful countrymen will it be cherished 
and enshrined; and on those tablets, more lasting than flinty 
stone, hammered brass, or polished marble, will be inscribed the 
perfect record of his true greatness. Small in stature and phys- 
ically delicate, yet he was a man of distinct individuality, 
strength of will, firmness of purpose, and soundness of judg- 
ment. Possessed of genuine human sympathies and sensibilities 
the most tender, he warmed and gladdened all by his affability 
and the sweetness of his manners. 

There was no sham, no disguise in him. The true qualities 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 179 

of his soul, the open nature of his heart, though apparent to 
the multitude, were best known and therefore most highly ap- 
preciated by those immediately around him. In temperament, 
style, and bearing he was eminently himself. Ardent, pungent, 
glowing, sincere, and winning, whether in conversation or in 
speech, his society was eagerly sought and his utterances listened 
to with the greatest interest. Endowed by nature with a quick 
perception and an intense love of the sublime, his sweeping 
logic was seldom other than clothed with the flowers of rhetoric, 
and his thoughts, pointed and brilliant, poured forth like an 
avalanche, in grand and inspiring words. 

Prominent in his forensic efforts were the admirable qualities 
of thoughtfulness, patient research, energy, and power. His 
addresses exhibited a freshness and variety of thought, a vigor 
and impressiveness of argument, a force and aptness of illustra- 
tion, that impressed the dullest as well as commended him to 
the most intelligent and thoughtful hearer. Yea, often en- 
tranced by the magic of his eloquence when some strange power 
possessed him, his hearers were led beyond comprehension of 
the real into Elysian fields of a mystic paradise. Aside from 
gilding and the embellishments of style or elocution, he was 
master of the solid elements of mind and heart. A student of 
ancient and modern literature, science, and art, often the quiet 
midnight found him in contemplative joy over the productions 
of the world's master minds. 

In manner unassuming, in bearing dignified, in statement 
vigorous, he had a wonderful command of language and pe- 
culiar charm of speech, that pleased, convinced, and won. But 
though he could sway the throng that waited in rapturous eager- 
ness for every word that fell from his eloquent lips, yet his 
home and the sweet companionship of his devoted wife had far 



180 Address of Mr. Yodcr., of Ohio, on the 

greater charms for him than the praise of men or the fascina- 
tions of the forum. Here, at his own fireside, away from the 
restraint of public life and the cold and distant formalities of 
modern society, he found his happiest moments andTiis greatest 
joy. Here his genial and generous nature and his trusting and 
confiding heart gave sunshine and cheer to the idol of his life. 

He was a philanthropist in the highest sense of the word, a 
lover of his fellow-men. He was one of the grandest ornaments 
that modern times have contributed to American public life. 
Few there are to-day among great meji possessed of his varied 
abilities and his brilliant intellect, and few will ever equal his 
grand and uniqi:e character. A scholar and historian, he has 
left us the result of his labors in books that enlighten and in- 
struct his countrymen. His death came like a dark cloud upon 
us and upon the nation. That great heart is now stilled which 
could but love, for it contained no malice, and no words of 
bitterness fell from his lips. The absolute purity of his private 
life and the unquestioned honesty of his public career are ex- 
amples to us and to the nation to praise, emulate, and follow. 

To the members of this House he was warmly attached. 
Even on his dying bed often he inquired after and earnestly 
expressed a desire to be with us again. Constant and true, his 
devotion to friends was proverbial and unwavering. His good 
nature, humor, wit, intelligence, and sociability made him a 
favorite not only here but everj'where. 

Ohio in sadness lays on his grave the flowers of her love and 
pride. 

O good, great heart that all men knew, 

O iron nerve, to true occasion true; 

Fallen at length, that tower of strength 

Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew ! 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 181 



ADDRESS OF MR. QUINN, OF NEW YORK. 

Mr. Speaker: After the eloquent tributes which have been 
paid to the memory of Samuel Sullivan Cox by the gentle- 
men who have preceded me, men whose genius and whose elo- 
quence have thrilled the civilized world, it becomes a difficult 
task for me to say aught that has not been already much better 
said. 

Yet I feel that I owe a duty to my own feelings as well as to 
him whose memory we have assembled here this day to honor. 
I knew him well, and I loved him even better than I knew 
him. I loved him, and I honor his memory now for his patri- 
otic and magnificent Americanism, for the kindly gentleness of 
his great heart, for the brilliancy of his genius, and for the un- 
selfish purity and grandeur of his whole life. 

Though he himself was born in the great State of Ohio, he 
was descended from the bravest and best of New Jersey's gal- 
lant sons. His grandfather. General James Cox, of New Jer- 
sey, was one of those whose heroism and bravery, on many a 
hard-fought field, side by side with Washington and Lafayette, 
drove the tyrant and the despot forever from our shores and 
firmly laid the foundation of that freedom which is the glory 
and admiration of the world, and for which his grandson sacri- 
ficed so much of his life that he might hand it down pure and 
unsullied to the generations yet unborn, to his country for all 
time. 

Few who ever lived were more patriotic or more sincere than 
his father; few there were whose voices were heard as often in 
the councils of his State and also in the" halls of the National 
Legislature as his; and, like his patriotic father, he left a record 



182 Address of Mr. Quhm^ of N civ York, on the 

and a name behind him which is the pride and common her- 
itage of his country. 

Graduating, as he himself did, from one of the foremost uni- 
versities of this country with the highest honors, he soon be- 
came one of the most active members of the bar. But another 
and a wider field awaited him, that of journalism, one that by 
reason of his brilliant wit, his keen satire, and his great learn- 
ing, he was destined to adorn. 

In 1856 he was elected to the Congress of the United States 
from his native Ohio. For four consecutive terms did he faith- 
fully, fearlessly, and well represent the Columbus district. In 
1868 we find him transferred to the metropolis of the Empire 
State, where a still wider and more extensive field awaited the 
outpouring of his genius and his patriotism. In that year he 
became one of its Representatives in these Halls, and well does 
New York to-day — yes, and the whole land he loved so well — 
bear testimony to the manner in which he served their every 
interest. Well do the toilers of the sea remember his ceaseless 
efforts in their behalf and the victory achieved by him in the 
establishment of the Life-Saving Service around our shores. 

Dear is his memory to the hearts of those faithful servants of 
the Government employed in the postal service, for whose 
emancipation he labored so faithfully and so well. Dear is he 
to all the toilers of our land, whose champion he was at all 
times. No man of our time has so faithfully performed the 
duties of the patriot, the statesman, and the friend as he! To 
use the words of Hon. J. Proctor Knott, when speaking re- 
cently of his departed friend: 

No other subject of a mere temporal character so completely filled the 
soul of Mr. Cox as the sublime perfection he saw in our Federal Union. 
It inspired him with the same wrapt enthusiasm with which the devout 



Life and Cliciractcr of Samuel S. Cox. 183 

astronomer regards the wondrous mechanism of the star-bedecked heavens. 
To him it was a splendid galaxy of sovereign and co-equal Common- 
wealths bound to a common center by an indissoluble tie upon which the 
preservation of each depended, and the moving in their appointed paths 
with the precision and harmony which marked the music of the spheres 
in the glorious dawn when the morning stars sang together and all the 
sons of God shouted for joy. 

But, Mr. Speaker, it is not for his great and untiring love of 
duty to his country and his people alone that we must admire 
and honor him. To see him in the midst of his domestic circle 
was a pleasure never to be forgotten. Generous in his hospi- 
tality to a fault, he delighted all around by his lovable disposi- 
tion and the gentleness of his manner, for he was indeed the 
most gentle of men, whose heart was full of sympathy and whose 
tongue, as well as his pen, was ever the first in the fight to 
strike the shackles from the limbs of the oppressed and down- 
trodden of every clime. 

Supremely blessed was he in the companionship of one of the 
most charming of helpmates, his wife, formerly Miss Julia A. 
Buckingham, whom he married at Zanesville, Ohio, October, 
1849. To him she was a priceless jewel, in spirit and disposi- 
tion pure as the sweetest buds of spring. His constant com- 
panion, who cheered him and rejoiced in his every triumph, her 
love brightened the whole pathway of his life and cast a sweet 
halo of religious consolation and hope around its close. Well 
may our tears mingle with hers over his tomb, for a grateful 
country shares her loss, her suffering, and her woe. 

Not yon bright stars that heaven's high arch adorn, 
Nor rising sun that gilds the vernal morn, 
Shine with such luster as the tear that breaks 
For others' woes down Virtue's manly cheeks. 

Yes, we mourn with you, dear partner of his life; you, the 
faithful, loving, affectionate wife, who in the bloom of your 



184 Address of Mr. McClammy., of North Carolina^ on the 

beauty gathered all his heart-strings together and wound them 
around your own! 

Farewell, Samuel Sullivan Cox, for your sun will rise on 
earth no more; yet the bright rays of your genius will continue 
to enlighten and cheer the people of every land! Your name, 
now a household word, shall live forever with our other immor- 
tals. Your career as a patriot and a statesman shall continue 
to illumine the brightest pages of our history. Empires and 
thrones will pass away, but your name shall live forever, and 
forever be dear to the heart of your loving and grateful country. 



Address of Mr. McClammy, of North Carolina. 

Mr. Speaker: Horace has declared that "Pale Death advanc- 
ing with equal and impartial step knocks at the hovel of the 
poor and the palace of the great." To die is the universal lot. 
To pass to our kindred dust and be forgotten, or else to live in 
cold and pulseless marble chiseled by glorious art to vital grace, 
is all that earth can offer us. Not even the Lord of Life, at 
whose bidding countless worlds flashed upon the brow of night, 
at whose command the vanished spirit returned to its abandoned 
tenement, in whose hands was all power and in whose heart 
was all purity, not even he escaped that dread and awful pen- 
alty in whose shadow we stand to-day, our hearts united with 
sorrow and our lips dumb with loss. 

Mr. Speaker, the custom which we now observe is as im- 
memorial as death itself Abraham bought the cave of Mac- 
pelah and fashioned and beautified it in loving sorrow for name- 
less loss. Barbaric nations piled uncouth stones on high as 
rude but touching memorials to commemorate the virtues of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 185 

their gifted dead. Advancing civilization builds to heroic worth 
the graceful shaft that splinters in radiant space the golden 
beams of light; and we pause beneath our country's drooj^ing 
banner to eulogize our fallen comrade, whose loved features 
shall be seen no more and whose eloquent voice is hushed for- 
ever. 

The author, the scholar, the diplomate, the orator, to whose 
proud and swelling tones your hearts have thrilled, the patriot 
whose great soul loved every rood of that mighty empire over 
which our country's glorious banner floats, has crossed the 
river. He, whose great intellect for thirty years burned upon 
the peaks of fame like a beacon of glorious light; he, whose 
genial humor flashed upon dull debate as the rays of the sun 
that pierce and scatter the murky folds of clouds; he, whose 
divining sense, whose scholarly polish, whose kindly heart, 
whose swelling soul and honor's loftv sense have made his name 
and life immortal, has passed to his great reward. 

Samuel Sullivan Cox is dead ! 

Ohio mourns not alone her honored dead. New York, with 
bowed head and faltering stejj, approaches not alone the grave 
of buried worth. North Carolina, with whom liberty is an in- 
spiration and duty a watchword, offers upon this shrine, with a 
grief that is voiceless, her profoundest tribute to the illustrious 
dead. Everywhere upon this continent of republics true hearts 
have chanted his mournful requiem and lowered above his 
honored dust the proud standards of national sovereignty. 

It is unnecessary to speak of his public services. Their 
length and character are the best attestation of their worth and 
sincerity. They glow upon his countr>''s history; they burn 
in shimmering glory upon his country's banner. They are 
written upon the hearts of my people with a stylus of fire. 



186 Address of Mr. McClammy, of North Cm'olina, on the 

When war had torn and wasted them; when their land was 
white with the tombs of her flower and dark with the nxins of 
a century's toil and hope; when Niobe, uncrowned and voice- 
less, sat amid the ashes of desolation, his voice pleaded with an 
angel's eloquence for the preservation of the American Union 
and the perpetuation of American liberty; and my people will 
love and honor him until Mecklenburgh and Moore's Creek and 
King's Mountain and Guilford Court-House can no longer thrill 
the hearts of a degenerate posterity. 

Sir, it has been recently said by a distinguished orator that 
the South builded monuments to men who perished for slavery 
and anarchy. I wish to say, sir, in the presence of that vacant 
chair, while in my heart is a chamber that will be dreary and 
empty forever, that if power equaled desire I would build a 
monument to this great leader of the North that should fall 
amid the wreck of matter and crash of worlds, about whose 
lofty summit the ethereal graces of the morning mists alone 
should hover, and upon whose granite heart should burn in 
fadeless fire the name of the patriot Cox. Not to him alone, 
but to every American, regardless of section and regardless of 
all save that he consecrated his abilities to his country and to 
his God in the cause of liberty, justice, and truth. 

My friends, a great captain has fallen, flushed with victory, 
nearing the zenith of his glor}', crowned with bays, wreathed 
with immortelles. 

How sleep the brave who sink to rest. 
By all their country's wishes blessed ! 

The voice that rang so proudly in these Halls as he soared 
upon his bold and mounting wing is now, alas, but the memory's 
echo; the face that shone transfigured with intellectual emotion 
is but a copy of the pale death. 



Life and Character o/Sanmel S. Cox. 187 

Our friend is Sunset Cox no longer; he has passed the quiver- 
ing bars of the sunset; his plumed spirit has floated through the 
translucent seas of ruby and opal and amethyst; passed the glit- 
tering splendors and burnished systems that flash from the 
jeweled arch of the midnight; passed from death unto life, from 
great tribulation unto perfect rest; joined beyond the golden 
bars his loved and lost; chanting upon golden harp the sweet 
refrains of triumph and wearing by the cr^'stal river the victor's 
crown of life. For him there is no death. Immortal he lives 
forever. 

There is no death. But angel forms 

Walk o'er the earth with silent tread; 
They bear our best loved things away, 

And then we call them dead. 
But ever near us, though unseen, 

The dear immortal spirits tread; 
For all the boundless universe 

Is life — there are no dead. 



Address of Mr. Turner, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker: We sit to-day in the presence of the voiceless 
mystery, death. Samuel Sullivan Cox, but a few short 
months ago vigorous in life, radiant in hope, strong in courage, 
has joined the silent army of the shadow-land. Life, that is 
itself a mystery, has given way and yielded to the greater and 
the stronger mj^stery, death. From out this circle the strong 
man has gone; in the midst of the battle the chieftain has fallen ; 
the wisdom of the statesman has vanished and the voice of the 
orator is hushed. The strained gaze of the watcher sees nor 
light, nor form, nor substance on the farther shore of the name- 
less river; the listening ear of affection catches no murmur from 
the echoless portals of the tomb. 



188 Address of Mr. Turner., of A^ew York., on the 

All the wisdom of all the ages stretches no farther than the 
little span of human life, bounded by the cradle and the coffin. 
The revelation of Deity alone can teach to man aught of the 
eternity that lies back of the cradle or that stretches forever 
beyond the grave. It is meet and fitting, then, for those who 
live to pause beside the bier of the giant gone, and learn again 
the lesson of the weakness and the futility of human hope, the 
short limitation of human life, and the evanescence of human 
fame. It was not my fortune, Mr. Speaker, to be associated 
with Mr. Cox in his Congressional career; it began before my 
life began. 

I can not speak to you, as others to-night have spoken, from 
the intimacy of long association in these Halls; I can not, as 
others so well have done, recall the incidents of his life, nor so 
justly as others can I estimate his abilities nor tell of the deeds 
of kindness that endeared him to so many of his fellow-men; 
but, sir, I can speak of the love and reverence in which he was 
held by the common people in the great city that honored him 
so long. Perhaps no man in the last quarter of a century has 
dwelt so near the hearts of the common people as Samuel Sul- 
livan Cox. In him they felt they had a champion and a rep- 
resentative to whom they could always turn and in whose care 
their rights and their interests were guarded and were safe. 

As few men ever have, he possessed the confidence of the 
toiling millions of this great land, and none probably deserved 
that confidence more. To the poorest and the meanest, as well 
as to the richest and the greatest, he was -always accessible; no 
one was turned away from his door and none denied a hearing 
who came with remonstrance or petition. In these qualities of 
Mr. Cox I see a more enduring fame than in even his brilliant 
course as a member of this body. Great indeed is that man 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox, 189 

who not alone exerts an influence in the legislative body of 
this nation, but who throughout a long public life dwells near 
to the hearts of the people. 

The common people of this land, Mr. Speaker, are its gov- 
ernment, their wishes and desires its safest and its wisest policy, 
and he who understands them best and represents them most 
faithfully is its greatest and its grandest statesman. Their full 
confidence Mr. Cox possessed, and in this confidence lay his 
strength. It was this that made him for many years a great 
and living force, while other men as brilliant vanished from the 
public gaze and became but shadowy memories of the past. 
His life was one of singular devotion to their interests, and 
those of us who gather here to-night, almost about his grave, 
may from that life draw the most valuable lessons. 

We are not all possessed of his keen, incisive intellect, but 
we can at least imitate his unflagging zeal and tireless industry; 
we do not all have his brilliant and far-reaching mind, but we 
can at least emulate his lofty sense of duty and of honor; not 
all of us shall attain his mighty and lasting fame, but we can 
at least walk in the way he led and be, as he was, a faithful 
representative of the people. 

Sleep, then, O mighty leader of the public thought; rest for- 
ever in peace, tried and faithful servant of the sovereign people ; 
updn thy bier lie not alone the laurel wreaths of victories won, 
but the fadeless immortelles of the people who loved and fol- 
lowed thee. Long as thy fame shall last in this body which 
thy genius adorned, still longer will the people of the great city 
that delighted to honor thee hold in loving memory thy name 
as one who gave to them the best service of his life. 



190 Address of Air. Hansbrough, of North Dakota^ on the 



Address of Mr. Hansbrough, of North Dakota. 

Mr. Speaker: As a representative of one of the new States 
admitted into the Union largely through the assistance of the 
statesman whose life and services are now under review, I hope 
that I may be able to contribute, in a few brief sentences, some- 
thing which will stand as an expression of the feeling of those 
who are now enjoying the rights and liberties so long denied 
them. 

It was not my good fortune to occupy a seat in this House 
with the lamented Samuel Sullivan Cox, nor indeed did I 
know him beyond a casual acquaintance. Yet, sir, I should 
have felt greatly honored to be his colleague, and I know that 
we must have been the warmest of friends by the bonds of s^-m- 
pathy which unite the greatest of strangers in the cause of jus- 
tice. Few men rise superior to party when great party ques- 
tions are involved. In the contest over the admission of the 
new States Mr. Cox achieved fresh distinction as a statesman. 
He left the beaten path of partisanship and became the new 
Douglas of the Democracy. 

Thus to the garlands he had won in literature, in statecraft, 
in diplomacy, and in debate were added the laurels that alone 
belong to the patriot. He had read the lives of the fathers of 
this Republic not in vain. The history of their devotion to 
liberty and their abhorrence of oppression must have been 
deeply graven upon his youthful mind, for in man's estate we 
find him, as a political leader, disregarding his party's man- 
date and struggling to liberate a million of his countrymen 
from Territorial bondage. 

Who can fathom the depths of pride with which he witnessed 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 191 

the fruition of what must have been to him the dearest hope of 
his declining years ? It was a fitting and just recognition of 
his patriotism when he was called, only a few months before 
his death, to visit, upon the mountains and upon the plains, the 
grateful people in whose interest he had so successfully labored. 
It was the statesman's compensation to stand with uncovered 
head and receive the plaudits of a delighted populace. 

So, Mr. Speaker, I believe that I express the sentiment of the 
people of the two Dakotas, Montana, and Washington when I 
say that the services of Mr. Cox in our behalf have, as they 
are entitled to have, the fullest measure of appreciation. We, 
too, in our humble way, can rise above party; and we come" to- 
day to lay the offerings of our gratitude upon the altar of his 
renown. 

To him, after a ripe age, a long life of usefulness, death must 
have come like a gentle sleep — without pain, full of peace, 
laden with assurance of immortality. May the memory of his 
worth never perish. 



Address of Mr, McCarthy, of New York. 

Mr. Speaker: I rise to participate in these sad services, 
realizing the great responsibility and aware of the lack of abil- 
ity on my jjart to do justice to the memory, virtues, and states- 
manship of our deceased friend, Samuel Sullivan Cox. 

However, I ask you to bear with me and make allowance for 
my imperfections, and to accept the assurance that but for the 
love I have for his memory I would not venture upon such a 
task. 

He is dead, and all that is left of him is the small particle of 
clay which lies cold and silent in the tomb. He is not dead. 



192 Address of Mr. McCarthy., of Neiv York., on the 

His spirit lives. It is abroad. A man dies, but his memory 
lives. His life, character, and virtues will always be cherished 
by and live in the hearts of the American people. Men of his 
character and his fame never die. 

The lives of such great men always encourage us to greater 
efforts, and to attempt at least to make our lives sublime, and, 
in the words of Longfellow, 

Departing, leave behind us. 
Footprints on the sands of time 

How few there are who loved him in life that do not mourn 
him in death, realizing all that was great in his marvelous 
character! A citizen of the purest manhood, his every under- 
taking was a triumph sublime. His deeds were beneficent and 
his every contest through life was a victory of peace. By his 
great ability he has raised on a solid foundation a fame which 
kings might envy and which will last to the end of time in the 
history of his country. 

No statesman has been more widely known among his 
countrymen than he. At home and abroad, wherever our lan- 
guage is spoken, his name is familiar. There is scarcely a home 
in our land where civilized man has his abode, even in the sol- 
itude and fastnesses of the western wilderness, where his name 
is not a household word. 

He was born at Zanesville, Ohio, on the 30th of September, 
1824. He was a scion of Revolutionary fame. He was the son 
of Ezekiel Taylor Cox, who was one of the pioneer journalists 
of Ohio and who started the Muskingum Messenger, at Zanes- 
ville, in the early part of the present century. His father held 
many offices of trust and confidence. From 182 1 to 1828 he 
held the office of clerk of the supreme court, and was also 
officially connected with the court of common pleas of his 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 193 

county. In 1831 he was a State senator, subsequently held the 
office of recorder, and was later again appointed a United States 
marshal by the President then in office. 

The grandfather of S. S. Cox was General James Cox, a dis- 
tinguished officer of the Revolution, who was born at Mon- 
mouth, N. J., and who fought at Brandy wine, Germantown, 
and Monmouth. His mother was the daughter of Samuel Sulli- 
van, who was treasurer of the State of Ohio in 181S. 

Samuel Sullivan Cox attended the university at Athens, 
Ohio, for a brief period, finally becoming a student at Brown's 
University, Rhode Island, where he paid his expenses by his 
literary ability as a teacher, afterwards graduating with the 
highest honors in 1846 and receiving three years later the de- 
gree of A. M. As late as 1885 this great seat of learning hon- 
ored him further by conferring the degree of LL,. D. 

To illustrate his ambition for literary fame and the great 
solicitude he felt about his education personally, I could not 
perhaps do better than read to you one of his letters to his 
father, from Athens, Ohio, in 1843 : 

Dear Father: Although I wrote you yesterday, circumstances have 
occurred which would require I should write again. Do not think I am 
troubling you too much about my future course. Tt is not a very trifling 
matter where I am to pass the remainder of my collegiate course, and it 
should receive a degree of consideration, you will admit, correspondent 
to its importance. 

I wrote you I determined on leaving Athens (owing to changes). 1 
can spend my time (vacation) profitably by reading, studying for debates, 
etc., and can easily enter junior at Cannonsburgh. If I trouble you too 
much, I have a tolerably good reason, you will admit, and I hope you 
will give me credit for wishing at least to do the best with the least in- 
convenience and expense. But I am perfectly at your will in regard to 
my future course. 

Your son, o...,,^, 

' Samuel. 

H. Mis. 243 13 



194 Address of Mr. McCarthy^ of New York^ on the 

Although exceedingly anxious about his future college course, 
this most ambitious youth seriously considered his father's pe- 
cuniary circumstances and unmistakably disclosed undoubted 
reluctance to trespass on his affectionate parent. 

However, for some reason unknown to me, Ca luonsburgh 
was not chosen. Brown's University, at Providence, R. I., was 
selected; and a generous relative, Mr. James C. Cox, furnished 
the requisite funds. It may also be stated here that as soon as 
the good student became self-sustaining this indebtedness was 
gratefully remembered and canceled. 

A letter written by him at Cincinnati, in 1849, to a j-ounger 
brother, in a most remarkable manner forecasts the power and 
genius of this great statesman and the key to his after life. I 
read from it: 

It pleases me immeasurably to see that you try yourself a little. I like 
to look to motives rather than to motions, to promptness rather than to 
flourishes, to principles rather than to semblances; and when I see in a 
good performance a good motive, a creditable prorapture, and a noble 
principle, I can open some part of my nature which no one can ever see, 
not even my father, without these golden keys. You may learn some day 
of aspirations and the close, unremitting industry with which I have fol- 
lowed up certain ends — of the irrepressible love I have of triumphing over 
difficulties I have had. But enough. I only mention it to show you that 
the least effort on your part to rally under the " Excelsior " ensign touches 
a genial cord. 

I would ever advise you, as your elder brother and as one who in the 
better moments hopes to be (if he be not) a Christian, to rise above 
every obstruction, come from where it may. By willing it you can do 
it. Will alone becomes confirmed and strengthened by the first act under 
its guidance. 

I am used to writing freely and would rather be looked upon as unkind 
and forbidding, in writing something that may stir, rather than to indulge 
in fancy, etc. 

Returning to his alma mater, as well as defraying his 
collegiate expenses with his literary labors, he secured prizes 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 195 

in classics, history, literary criticism, and political econ- 
omy. 

He had the reputation of being a good student, and never 
ceased to treasure a warm affection for his professors. Later on in 
life he had the honorary membership of the Cobden Club, of 
England, bestowed on him. 

Adopting the profession of the law, he returned to his native 
State and entered, as a student, the office of the firm of Goodard 
& Convers. Afterwards he removed to Cincinnati, and completed 
his legal studies with Hon. Vachel Worthington. Here he 
practiced for a few years. He was also a close student of theol- 
ogy, and was familiar with the different doctrines of the various 
religions, knowing the Bible almost by heart. 

In his Orient Sunbeams, speaking of the holy sepulcher, he 
says: 

In this far-off country one is very near his highest and best thought, 
and at the very tomb, or at least in the very precincts of the spot where 
He suffered, agonized, and died, utter helplessness of one's condition, 
without divine aid, subdues all pride and humbles all worldliness. 

In 185 1 he attended the first World's Exposition in L,ondon 
and traveled extensively through Europe, touching on Asia. 

On his return to his native country in 1853 he settled in Co- 
lumbus, where he assumed the duties of an editor. The Ohio 
Statesman, of which he took charge, was a very prominent po- 
litical organ of the Democratic party. It was while editing 
this paper that he wrote a strikingly literary and exceedingly 
picturesque article, entitled "Sunset," from which thereafter 
he carried with him, even to his honored grave, his widely 
known sobriquet. 

In 1855 he was offered the secretaryship of legation to Lon- 
don, but declined to accept that high honor. Still, shortly 



196 Address of Mr. McCarthy, of New York, on the 

afterwards, in a similar capacity we find him at Lima, Peru, in 
the service of his country. But on accoimt of the fever so 
prevalent in this southern clime he soon resigned that office 
and returned to his home in Columbus. Here his district sent 
him to Congress four terms in succession, where he distin- 
guished himself from December, 1857, to March, 1865. It was 
about the beginning of this time that this able and honored 
statesman delivered his first speech. It was noticeable that it 
was the first speech ever delivered in this Hall in which we are 
now assembled. It was on the Lecompton constitution, ad- 
mitting Kansas into the Union as a State. At the end of his 
term, in 1865, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, before which he succeeded to a most ex- 
tensive practice. Here his zest and activity established the 
fact that he was a shrewd, careful, and able lawyer and a mas- 
ter of that honored profession. 

That he was an adherent and stanch supporter of the great party 
he cast his fortune with, his honored career gives ample proof 
We find him next serving as a delegate to the Charleston, Chi- 
cago, New York, and St. Louis conventions of 1856, 1864, 
1868, and 1876. 

It was during the civil war that his patriotism spoke the vir- 
tues of his brilliant and noble character, when his country 
needed his services most, when he sustained the Government by 
voting men and money, notwithstanding that he took a promi- 
nent part in opposing several policies of the Administration. In 
short, he was a stanch adherent and faithful advocate of the 
preservation of the Union. 

In was in 1865 that he came to reside in the great metropolis 
of the country, which, three years later, sent him to Congress 
again. New York, always remarkable for honoring the worthy, 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 197 

pleased with the sterling qualities of the great statesman and to 
bear testimony of her high appreciation of Mr. Cox's patriotic 
services, re-elected him eight times thereafter in succession to 
the position he so honorably filled. Our deceased friend was a 
representative man in every sense of that term. He served on 
numerous committees, among others on Foreign Affairs, Bank- 
ing, Naval, Library, Centennial, Rules, and Census, of all of 
which, excepting perhaps the Committee on Rules, he was 
chairman. 

In the Forty-fourth Congress he was appointed Speaker pro 
tempore June, 1876. 

At the opening of the first session of that Congress, 1S77, he 
was one of the candidates for the Speakership, and, although 
not elected, he served frequently thereafter in that office with 
the most marked ability and distinction. In the very session 
of the House I now speak of, he organized the new census, and 
his individual eflforts in relation thereto reflected creditably on his 
energy and capacity. He distinguished himself as an author of 
a system of apportionment which met the highest approval of 
his colleagues and evoked the entire satisfaction of his constit- 
uents, and is the author of the present apportionment law 
under which the representation of the States in Congress is 
made. 

In the tariff he was always at home. It was his pet theme. 
His orthodox views were as broad as he was whole-souled and 
liberal-minded. He was the friend of the Hebrews of every 
country, and their interests under every condition were safely 
and solicitously guarded by him. A true and sterling patriot, 
born in the most liberal, liberty-loving country on the face of 
the globe, he loved to see liberty prevail the world over. The 
persecution of the Hebrews abroad evoked his deepest sympa- 



1 98 Address of Mr. McCarthy^ of New York, on the 

thy, sense of justice, and his most earnest sen'ices in behalf of 
suffering humanity. 

As an evidence of the great gratitude of the Jewish people 
and their high appreciation of and friendship for Samuel Sul- 
livan Cox, I will briefly quote you a passage from the language 
used by Simon Wolf, chairman of the executive committee, at 
the general convention of the supreme lodge of the order of 
Kesher Shel Barzel, delivered very recently, and already quoted 
by the gentleman, Mr. Bunnell. This Mr. Wolf continues: 

He was a statesman, a patriot, a legislator, a diplomate, an author, 
a wit, a lecturer. He was, notwithstanding all these attributes which 
caused him to be devoted day and night to the many duties of his call- 
ing, a devoted friend, a strong and wise defender of the oppressed of all 
climes and of all faiths, a counselor humane, gentle as a woman, efful- 
gent with the well-springs of a humanity that had its fount in the heart 
and its elevation in the loftiest attributes of a refined and cultured brain. 
While his name and his praises had been sung by all people there is no 
class that should remember hmi more gratefully than the Jews. In sun- 
shine and in storm, in and out of Congress, he was their constant friend, 
their champion most devoted and true. 

He was the friend of the oppressed in all countries alike, irre- 
spective of creed or class. 

He believed in home rule and a government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people, and therefore alwa}'s advo- 
cated home rule for Ireland. 

He it was who secured and had extended the use of the Hall 
of the House of Representatives and the attendance of Sena- 
tors and other influential and ptiblic men of note to hear that 
great champion of Irish libert)-, Charles Stewart Parnell, place 
before the American people in their true light the great griev- 
ances of Ireland. This was the greatest honor ever extended 
to any stranger by our people. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 199 

His efforts in the cause of humanity stand to-da}- as living 
monuments of his worth, earnestness, and sincerity. His legis- 
lative acts were always of the substantial, serviceable, and few 
fell short of being institutions of universal benefit to humanity. 

For many years he was the introducer and champion of the 
bill organizing the Life-Saving Serv'ice; in fact, he was the 
father of this service, the passage of which he had the pleasure 
of witnessing. 

Writing on this subject, the Chicago Times says: 

To the late lamented S. S. Cox, more than to any individual Rep- 
resentative in the country, falls the honor of making our Life-Saving 
Service effective. It is now a grand monument to his wisdom and 
humanity. 

Over 3,950 persons were rescued, and ships and cargoes valued at 
$7,966,660 saved this year. Ages hence, S. S. Cox will be remembered 
by those who go down to the sea in ships and are rescued from the 
treacherous waves by the crews of life-boats. 

To account for Mr. Cox's deep interest in this great and suc- 
cessful undertaking of his, I will read an extract from a speech 
delivered by him in the House of Representatives, June, 1878: 

It is impossible, Mr. Speaker, personally not to felicitate myself upon 
having given much earnest study to this life-saving legislation. It would 
not perhaps be in good taste to boast of having been instrumental in its 
organization and improvement. 

The inspiration for what I have done, however, came out of a storm 
upon the Scilly Isles, in the winter of 1868, when a great steamer barely 
escaped shipwreck. It was the worst tempest in thirty years upon that 
coast. When we arrived in port tlie day after the peril, the English jour- 
nals were full of the glorious exploits, by rocket and signal and coast- 
guard and mortar and life-boat. I wondered if so much could be done 
in England, with her forty-five hundred miles of coast line, why should 
not our country, with double that number of miles, have a similarly effi- 
cient service. It was this that led me to propose what the superintendent 
of the service called the efficient beginnmg of the patrol of the Jersey 
coast. Since that time how much has been done for the well being and 



200 Address of Mr. McCarthy, of New York, on the 

rescue of imperiled human life! How much of comfort and joy has 
been vouchsafed to families and friends of the beneficiaries of that mercy 
which droppeth as the gentle rains from heaven in this warm-hearted 
legislation, blessing and blessed. 

Again, in 1888, when speaking on the same subject, he de- 
clared that the saving of life at that time exceeded 36,000 
persons. 

Speaking of the same subject then he says; 

May I not, then, take pardonable pride in the establishment and prog- 
ress of this system, which has no peer in the world for its effective work 
and no paragon in the history of nations for its inspiration ? I some- 
times think, Mr. Speaker, that I have, through the mercy of God, more 
than my compensation for the little I have done in the promotion of this 
service. When struggling for life one year ago, in this city, when the 
little will power which was remaining was ready to succumb before the 
ravages of disease and the agony of pain, and when friends had almost 
given up my surviving, I cast my eyes upon two pictures at either side of 
my sick-bed. 

One was that of the life-boat going out through the storm to the res- 
cue of a ship wrecked upon a rock-bound coast, while there on the shore 
the relatives of the surfmen stand speechless with anxiety as to the fate 
of the brave men who hazard all for the rescue. The other picture is 
that of the same life-boat coming in. It is laden with its precious freight. 
The howling storm, the chime of the breakers, and the dark clouds around 
the beetling cliffs; the cry goes up from thankful hearts, "All safe; all 
well." 

In my poor sick fancy I grasped the tiller of the life-boat. I clung to 
it with the tenacity that overcame the sinking heart of an emaciated body. 
The good doctor, when I related to him the incident and the source, and 
how it had inspired me with a fresh hope and a new life, gave me smiling 
assurance that I might still survive as a rescued man to plead for the Life- 
Saving Service in many Congresses. 

Not alone to the man who travels on the sea was Mr. Cox a 
benefactor. He was a friend to every man. Enemies he had 
but few. He was a friend to the letter-carrier. He supported 
the legislation which raised their salaries and granted them a 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 201 

vacation every 3'ear without loss of pay for such time, which 
lessened their hours of labor to eight hours a day. This last- 
mentioned measure necessitated an additional appropriation, but 
faithful service and gratitude from the beneficiaries proved the 
outlay in many respects a saving. 

The gratitude of these hitherto overworked servants of the 
people was sincerely and truly illustrated by their feelings of 
sorrow for the deceased and sympathy with the wife in her great 
bereavement, and numerous testimonials which came from 
them show a grateful recognition of the great statesman's kind- 
ness of heart. 

His life was one of unceasing activity. He served on the 
committees to investigate the doings of Black Friday, the Fed- 
eral elections in cities, the New York post-office, and the ku- 
klux troubles. 

He was one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution and 
always took a deep interest in the affairs of that institution. 

One of the most important services rendered by Mr. Cox, and 
for which New York gratefully remembers him, was his instru- 
mentality in the passage of a law to effectually preserve New 
York Harbor and its tributaries from destruction. 

In 1885 he was appointed minister to Turkey under the Cleve- 
land administration. Here the resources were infinite for his 
studious pen, and so deeply interested was he in the country and 
its people — much to the unfeigned discontent of his numerous 
friends and the public at large — that he was loath to return to 
America very soon. But a severe hemorrhage necessitated his 
coming home immediately. He accordingly was constrained 
to abandon his mission, and after eighteen months' sojourn 
abroad he was with his own people again. 

As his health soon was restored, the people again felt a great 



202 Address of Mr. McCarthy, of New York, on the 

interest in their faithful representative, and two months later he 
was again in the campaign, a political contest which comprised 
two elections. One was to the Forty-ninth Congress to fill the 
place of Hon. Joseph Pulitzer, who had resigned, and then an 
• election to the Fiftieth Congress. I need not say that in both 
elections Mr. Cox was a successful candidate. 

In the fall of 1888 he was strongly advised to resign his seat 
in Congress and accept a nomination for the mayoralty of the 
city of New York, but many reasons have been given for his re- 
fusal to allow his name to be used on this occasion. 

As an able, effective speaker and a litterateur he had a wide 
reputation. He was a great wit as well as a humorist. He was 
considerable of a writer and was the author of a volume on his 
experiences while in Congress from Ohio, entitled Eight Years 
in Congress, published in 1865; Search for Winter Sunbeams 
in Corsica, Algiers, and Spain, in 1869; Why We Laugh, in 
1877 ; and in 1882, After a Summer Tour, Northern and Eastern 
Europe, Arctic Sunbeams, and Orient Sunbeams. 

His latest political work was the Three Decades of Federal 
Legislation, published in 1885. In this latter work his writing 
alludes to the most critical and exciting era in the history of the 
American Republic, his first decade beginning with the birth 
of the Republican party, the last ending with the return of the 
Democratic party to power, in 1885. 

During twenty-four years of this eventful and momentous 
period Mr. Cox was an active member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

In 1887, after his return from Turkey, he published Prinki- 
poo, and a much larger volume, entitled Diversions of a Diplo- 
mate, both of which have been widely read and are popularly 
sought after. 



Life and CItaracter of Samuel S. Cox. 203 

But the last and crowning act in the legislative career in the 
great statesman's busy life was in connection with the admission 
to the Union of four new States: Washington, Montana, and 
North and South Dakota. So, even to the close of his busy 
life, his energy and patriotism were directed toward the honor 
and advancement of his country. 

It was at Zanesville, too, where he was born, that Mr. Cox, 
on the nth of October, 1849, found the best and truest com- 
panion of his life, Miss Julia A.. Buckingham. Liberally edu- 
cated, gifted, and ever devoted to her husband's greatest inter- 
ests and welfare, in her wifely love she realized his truest ideal 
of the standard of noble womanhood. She in all things was his 
most trusted adviser, and to-day, more than all ofius, mourns his 
loss and reveres his memory. 

His illness was so brief that news of his death was at first 
discredited. The sad event occurred at 8. 30 p. m. , at his home. 
No. 13 East Twelfth street, New York City, in the presence of 
his ever-devoted wife and most trusted friends. 

News of his death was received by men of all parties with pro- 
found and unfeigned regret and sorrow. Ever since the Thirty- 
fifth Congress he was prominent as a man of mark in national 
affairs. I might say truly, not in the history of the United 
States has there been a more prominent Representative on the 
floor of this House. Everybody knew him and everybody liked 
him. 

There were few more industrious students or riper and versa- 
tile scholars in the field of literature or politics. In the most 
important branches of the public service he was an invaluable 
worker. He was one of the ablest debaters on the floor; he was 
an accurate speaker, eloquent, sometimes humorous, and ever 
quick and keen at repartee. He was a thorough parliamen- 



204 Address of Mr. McCarthy, of Neiv York, on the 

tarian; in a word, he was in every sense a national man. In 
years to come he will be universally missed, whilst to-day he is 
mourned by political friends and foes alike. 

Mr. Speaker, the spirits of the great \yashington, Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, Clay, Webster, Lincoln, and Grant hover 
about us and bid us give our fullest expression to the virtues 
and the memory of this great statesman. Here assembled we 
obey their bidding. We can not speak too much of him. Often 
within these Halls has his familiar voice been heard pleading in 
behalf of liberty, justice, and charity. 

In the words of Dr. Talmage, at the funeral service in New 
York: 

A nation mourtis. What a wide, deep vacuum is left when such a man 
as this dies. We shall not see his like again. He was the first and last 
of his kind. Without a predecessor, he will be without a successor. 

Mr. Speaker, as I said in the beginning, our honored friend 
lives and his good works will go down to posterity in the his- 
tory of his country. 

As a mark of our love, respect, and esteem, I respectfully sug- 
gest to this House, for consideration at some more favorable 
time, that a suitable bust of the Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox, 
statesman, philosopher, and patriot, be erected within the pre- 
cincts of this Hall. In the words of Antony over Brutus — 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, " This was a man ! " 

In my very humble way I have labored to place before yott a 
few of the many great qualities possessed by this remarkable 
man. Thanking you most sincerely for the kind manner in 
which I have been listened to, I leave the subject with the re- 
flection and wish that the memory of Samuel Sullivan Cox 
may ever live in the hearts of his countrymen. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 205 



ADDRESS OF MR, SHERMAN, OF NEW YORK. 

Mr. Speaker: To sketch even briefly the events which made 
up the life of Samuel Sullivan Cox, to pause upon and touch 
each step of his remarkable career, to review his public acts, 
to analyze his public character and works, to summarize all 
that gave him place among America's Christian statesmen, I do 
not intend. A perfect word-painting by the most eloquent 
among us, intensified by the memor)' of some special kindly 
act, could hardly do justice to his memory. 

Those better fitted by nature and by longer and more inti- 
mate acquaintance with him have outlined the more important 
doings of his life. Of a life full of activity, so full of service to 
his country and mankind, too much can not be said. It is in 
my heart to do justice to his memory; but to pronounce his fit- 
ting eulogy in all things I shall not attempt. 

I would speak a few unvarnished words, descriptive of his 
goodness, as a recorded proof that memory still holds dear the 
face, the form, the heart of a departed friend; speak them feel- 
ingly, tenderly, reverently, as I would scatter a handful of 
flowers upon his grave. 

The name of Mr. Cox has been familiar to me as that of an 
esteemed and trusted friend of my father, though I had never 
met him until the meeting of the Fiftieth Congress. As my 
father's son, I made myself known to him. My reception was 
most cordial. From the first I found in him a friend, ever 
ready to give ear and counsel, no matter how trivial the subject 
upon which I approached him. His great kind heart seemed 
open to me. It opened so quickly, so freely, that I seemed to 
have found a friend of \ears. I learned bv observation, neither 



206 Address of My. Sherman^ of New York., on the 

long nor keen, that I was not an exceptional recipient of his 
kindness. 

Of him could it have been literally said, " He salntes the 
world and extends the hand" of friendship to the human race. ' ' 
His most striking characteristic to one who came to know him 
well was his kind and tender heart. Day by day it grew upon 
his associates. At times it seemed as if it must break the con- 
fines of the frail body. Quick, alert, sharp as he was in de- 
bate, earnest as was his advocacy of a cause he espoused, ready 
as he always was to parry the thrusts of his opponent, and by 
his rhetoric, his wit, or his satire blunt the point of the argu- 
ment, his words were framed, were spoken with such a manner 
of personal, kindly feeling for his adversary as to leave no 
wound behind. The subject and not its champion was the ob- 
ject of his attack. 

His heart had room to share the sorrows of others. His hand 
was ready to lighten others' ills. His very busy life was never 
too busy to prevent his turning aside to alleviate suffering or 
soften grief. Above his statesmanship, his versatility, his 
humor, above his intense Americanism, shines out the good- 
ness and greatness of his heart. He will be forever remem- 
bered for — 

That best portion of a good man's life : 
His little nameless, unnumbered acts 
Of kindness and of love. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 207 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Morrow, of California. 

Mr. Speaker: Reference has been made to the legislative 
services of Mr. Cox for the benefit of the letter-carriers of the 
United States. The legislation he proposed was always in the 
direction of a liberal and enlightened government policy in all 
branches of the public service. He was a man of broad sym- 
pathy and generous impulses, and appreciated the fact that the 
Government while not always exacting was yet sometimes a 
hard task-master. 

The letter-carrier system has always imposed long hours and 
hard work on its employfe. Mr. Cox advocated and secured 
for this most deserving class much-needed relief and endeared 
himself to them by his able and active services in their behalf 

The letter-carriers of San Francisco, Cal. , as an organization 
have prepared and adopted a series of resolutions expressing the 
tribute they would pay to the memory of our departed friend. 
These resolutions have been handsomely engrossed and framed, 
and are now in front of the Speaker's desk. I ask that they 
may be read and incorporated into the proceedings as giving 
voice to one thought coming to-day from the far Pacific. 

The resolutions were read, as follows : 

THE letter-Carriers' aid association of san francisco, cal. 

At a meeting of the United States letter-carriers of the city of San 
Francisco, held on Tuesday evening, October 15, 1889, a subjoined pre- 
amble and resolutions were unanimously adopted: 

Whereas we contemplate with feelings of mingled sorrow the announce- 
ment of the death of the Hon. Samuel S. Cox, member of Congress 
from the Ninth Congressional district of New York: Be it therefore 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Cox the nation has lost an able 



208 Address of Mr. Gcissoi/iaiiier, of Nciv Jersey^ on tlic 

and experienced legislator, whose most conspicuous features were a long 
and useful career of eminent scholarship, tireless industry, and unsullied 
reputation for honesty and integrity, and a never-failing devotion to the 
ties of friendship and the rights and welfare of the people. 

Resolveil, That as employes of the free-delivery system of the United 
States postal service, we shall ever hold in grateful remembrance the 
painstaking research, laborious compilations, and eloquent pleading for 
which on so many occasions during his long and honorable career in the 
halls of Congress Mr. Cox so ably assisted in securing for ourselves and 
our fellow-employes of the service mentioned the just provisions which 
from time to time have been accorded to us by Congressional enactments. 
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, suitably engrossed, be 
transmitted to the honorable Clerk of the national House of Representa- 
tives, with a respectful request that he may please to cause the same to 
be read in the presence of the honorable body of whom the deceased 
was long esteemed a distinguished associate, and thereby confer a lasting 
favor upon the letter-carriers of the city at the Golden Gate. 

John F. Glover, Chairman, 
Eugene Flanders, 
RoLLA Fairbanks, 
Edward L. Bolan 
John Rules, 

Committee on Resolutions. 
San Francisco, October 15, 1889. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. GEISSENHAINER, OF NEW JERSEY, 

Mr. Speaker: It is a custom somewhere inotir land for rela- 
tives and friends to drop, in succession, upon the casket when 
deposited in its final resting-place a white rosebud. This House 
is at this hour decking the tomb of a revered and distinguished 
brother. It is casting the rosebuds culled along the pathway of 
affectionate companionship and memor}' upon the bier of him 
who, beginning the journey anew, was plucked away even before 
the road was reached. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 209 

The ancestry of Samuel Sullivan Cox is of noble and 
patriotic h,istory. His grandfather, General James Cox, a Rev- 
olutionary hero, was a native of old Monmouth. Leaving New 
Jersey early in the century, his family was drawn further and 
further toward the land of that setting sun so vividly described 
by him, and which description gained for him the title by which 
he was known until his end. 

Mr. Cox was born at Zanesville, Ohio, in 1824. Reared 
among the great fields and beneath the majestic, overshadowing 
trees, he early learned to love the soil and to honor those whose 
mission it was to labor. Ever amid the pursuits of his life, 
whether as lawyer, journalist, author, diplomate, or statesman, 
he never forgot the sons of toil, and ever strove to assist and 
direct them. Frank and free, he drew them around him, and 
rejoiced in their approval and support. With them he was 
earnest, and when addressing audiences of laboring men strug- 
gled to forge some mighty truth in such fashion that all might 
grasp and comprehend. 

His genial nature was carried in the front and turned alike 
to all. Never shall be forgotten the kindly clasp of his hand 
nor the pleasant word of welcome with which he greeted the 
member coming from the home of his sires, the home where a 
few years before he had participated in the laying of the corner- 
stone of the Monmouth battle monument. 

He was careful of his good name and well guarded it, believ- 
ing that desire for reputation when founded on integrity was as 
much a duty to one's self as approbation beyond one's own con- 
victions was falsehood and vanity. 

His friendship was a worthy, honest one, built upon a sym- 
pathetic and reciprocal foundation, a friendship ready to share 
alike a pleasure or a grief. 
e. Mis. 243 14 



210 Address of Mr. Geisse7ihainer., of New Jersey., on the 

Although the hand of death has fallen heavily upon this 
House and even this very week has beckoned away, as the ninth, 
one of the foremost of this body, it can not take from us the 
recollection of what the departed have been, nor can it check 
their influence upon the present and the future. 

The Seneca Indians had a beautiful superstition. When a 
loved one of the tribe was called to the "happy hunting- 
grounds" a young bird was imprisoned until it began to chirp 
its little song. It then was loaded with caresses and set free, 
with a firm conviction that it would neither fold wing nor close 
eye until it had borne its burden to the shadow in the spirit 
land. The bird is freed to-day, and were the superstition true 
there would be carried to our deceased brother the loving bur- 
den breathed upon it by his eloquent successor. 

We know, however, that our brother is in that eternal world 
where no superstition, however beautiful, can ever enter. He 
has been guided by death to an everlasting life. He has left us 
in the land of the dying and gone before into the land of the 
living. 

The last act has been performed, the earthly record is closed, 
and having mingled the laurel with the myrtle, we leave the 
brother trustingly to the tender care of the Infinite and Eternal. 

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
those members who have not spoken and who desire to pay 
tribute to the memory of Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox be 
allowed to print their remarks in the Record. 

There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 

Mr. McAdoo. Mr. Speaker, I ask uuanimous consent to 
insert in the Record, in connection with these exercises, the 
address of Hon. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, an ex-member of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 211 

this House, the remarks of ex-President Cleveland, and the 
proceedings at the great memorial meeting held at the Cooper 
Union, New York, October lo, 1889. 

There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 

MEMORIAL MEETING IN NEW YORK. 

Cooper Union, October 10, 1889. 

Mr. Julius Harburger, president of the Steckler Association, called 
the meeting to order, and introduced Rev. Dr. P. F. McSweeney, who de- 
livered the prayer: 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
Amen. 

O Almighty and Eternal God, source of all power, wisdom, and good- 
ness, we praise and bless Thy holy name, and we offer Thee our humble 
thanks for all Thy graces and gifts to us. Thy creatures. On Thee do 
we depend for all that we are and possess, and for all that we hope for 
in this life and in the next. But, while we hail Thee as the great Master 
and just Judge, we also know, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, 
that Thou art, above all, our loving and merciful Father. We thank 
Thee for giving us this beautiful and spacious land in which to dwell, 
and for the noble and Christian principles of freedom under law by which 
it is governed. Especially do we return Thee thanks this night for rais- 
ing up great and good leaders of Thy people, like him whose loss we 
mourn so deeply, while bowing with pious resignation to Thy holy de- 
cree. In him we miss the servant whom Thou didst choose as the 
minister of Thy mercy when Thou didst hearken to the distressful cry of 
the shipwrecked mariner and of the laborer oppressed, and when Thou 
didst dry the tears of the widow and of the orphan. 

Do Thou, we beseech Thee, comfort the sorrowful heart of his beloved 
relict during the remainder of her lonesome journey through this mortal 
life, and bring her one day to Thy holy face in the kingdom of Thy glory. 
May those who will be called to occupy his place be endowed by Thee 
with intellectual power and civic virtue like those which characterized 
him. May they, like him, have a kind heart and an appreciative sym- 
pathy for Thy holy church and for the poor of Christ. And may this 
glorious Republic continue under Thy fostering care to be the refuge of 
the afflicted of every country and an exemplar to those who rule the na- 



212 Memorial Meeting in Nezv York. 

tions in Thy name. To Thee, O Lord, be benediction, and honor, and 
glory, and power forever and ever. Amen. 

After which Mr. Harburger came forward and said : Ladies and gen- 
tlemen, members of the Steckler Association, and invited citizens, under 
the auspices of the Steckler Association : This memorial meeting is held 
in honor of our lamented member, friend, and valued Representative in 
Congress, Samuel Sullivan Cox. The high honor and privilege has 
been conferred on me, as president of the association, of presenting to 
you the presiding officer of this memorial meeting, ex-President of the 
United States, Grover Cleveland. 

Hon. Grover Cleveland said : It is peculiarly fit and proper that 
among the tributes paid to the worth and usefulness of Sajiuel S. Cox 
the most hearty and sincere should flow from the hearts of his Congres- 
sional constituents. These he served faithfully and well, and they were 
honored by the honor of his life. It was as their chosen public servant 
that he gathered fame and exhibited to the entire country the strength 
and the- brightness of true American statesmanship. It was while he still 
served them that he died. All his fellow-citizens mourn his death and 
speak in praise of his character and his achievements in public life ; but 
his constituents may well feel that the affliction of his death is nearer to 
them than to others, by so much as they are entitled to a greater share 
of pride in all that he wrought. 

I should not suit the part allotted to me on this occasion if I should 
speak at length of the many traits of character within my personal knowl- 
edge that made your friend and mine the wise and efficient legislator, the 
useful and patriotic citizen, and the kind and generous man. These 
things constitute a theme upon which his fellow-countrymen love to 
dwell, and they will be presented to you to-night in more eloquent terms 
than I can command. 

I shall not, however, forbear mentioning the fact that your Represent- 
ative in all his public career and in his relations to legislation was never 
actuated by a corrupt or selfish interest. His zeal was born of public 
spirit and the motive of his labor was the public good. He was never 
found among those who cloak their efforts for personal gain, and advan- 
tage beneath the disgui.se of disinterested activity for the welfare of the 
people. These are pleasant things for his friends to remember to-night ; 
and they are without doubt the things upon which rest the greatest share 
of the honor and respect which his memory exacts from his fellow-citizens. 



Memorial Meeting in New York. 213 

But while we thus contemplate the value of unselfish public usefulness, 
we can not restrain a reflection which has a somber coloring. What is 
the condition of the times when we may justly and fairly exalt the mem- 
ory of a deceased public servant because he was true and honest and 
faithful to his trust ? Are we maintaining a safe standard of public duty 
when the existence of these virtues, instead of being general, are excep- 
tional enough to cause congratulation ? 

All public servants should be as true and honest and faithful as the 
man whom we mourn to-night. 

I beg you to take home with you among the reflections which this oc- 
casion shall awaken an appreciation of the truth that if we are to secure 
for ourselves all the blessings of our free institutions we must better ap- 
prehend the interest we have at stake in their scrupulous maintenance, 
and must exact of those whom we trust in public office a more rigid ad- 
herence to the demands of public duty. 

I congratulate you and myself upon the fact that we are to be ad- 
dressed to-night by one whose eloquence and ability, as well as his warm 
friendship for Mr. Co.x, eminently fit him to be the orator of the occasion. 

It is with much satisfaction that I now introduce Hon. J. Proctor 
Knott, of Kentucky. 

MEMORIAL ADDRESS OF HON. J. PROCTOR KNOTT, OF KENTUCKY. 

Mr. President, there has always been a disposition among men to 
honor their dead, to linger with a mournful pleasure upon the recollection 
of their virtues, and to speak of their merits in gentle terms of commen- 
dation. The sentiment is coeval with our race and will continue with it 
to the end of time. It is peculiar to no clime ; it is confined to no class ; 
it is limited by no condition in life. It is common to humanity every- 
where. It is innate with every member of our species who is capable of 
the slightest feeling of respect for his fellow-man. It wreaks itself upon 
expression in the simple ceremonies that attend the unobtrusive sepulture 
of the peasant and the solemn pomp that waits on the imposing obsequies 
of the king. Its memorials are seen aUke in the fading wreath that ex- 
hales its dying fragrance upon the obscure grave of humble poverty and 
the sculptured column that lifts its lofty head above the moldering dust 
of departed grandeur. It has brought us here to-night to offer with one 
accord the tribute of affectionate admiration to the memory of one who 
was endeared to many of us by the tenderest ties of friendship, and to all 



214 Memorial Meeting in New York. 

by the magnanimity of his nature and the luster reflected by his genius 
upon the history of our country and our race. 

No bloody laurel entwined his brow, no braying trumpet heralded his 
going forth, no nodding plumes were veiled at his approach, no em- 
battled armies waited on his word, no serried hosts rushed to the carnival 
of slaughter at his bidding. The " pomp and circumstance of glorious 
war" were not for him. His weapon was mightier than the sword, his 
arena grander than the stricken field, with its mangled dead and dying 
thousands. His triumphs were sublimer than crested leader ever won. 
They were the beneficent but bloodless victories of peace. In them he 
laid the broad foundations of a fame more durable than storied marble or 
monumental brass. The name of no man was ever more widely known 
or more lovingly revered among his countrymen than his. It has been 
heard wherever the language of civilized men is spoken. There is 
scarcely a home in all this wide and wondrous land, whether amid the 
busy haunts of the crowded city or in the solitudes of the far-off mountains, 
in which it is not a familiar household word. Thousands who had never 
looked upon his kindly face nor listened to his friendly voice read through 
the blinding mists of bitter tears the mournful tidings that his generous 
pulse had been stilled by the icy touch of death. Millions of loving 
hearts ached with silent anguish at the thought that all the sweet mel- 
odies of nature were hushed to his dull, cold ear forever; that the cheer- 
ful sun would rise and set on busy, joyous generations through all the 
cycles of coming time, but bring no light to his fi.xed and rayless eye. 
Yet how few there are among all the mighty multitudes who loved him 
in life and who mourn for him in death who fully realize all that was ad- 
mirable in his marvelous, many-sided character! 

SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

was born in Zanesville, Ohio, September 30, 1824. His ancestors, from 
whom he inherited the germs of those sterling qualities which were 
always so conspicuous in his singularly brilliant career, were, in all the 
elements of genuine respectability, eminently worthy of their illustrious 
descendant. 

His grandfather, General James Cox, of New Jersey, was an ardent 
advocate of American independence and a gallant soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war, in which, by the force of his own distinguished merits, he 
rose from the rank of captain to the command of a brigade, and after the 
close of that heroic struggle was repeatedly elected to the general as- 



Memorial Meeting in Neiv York. 215 

sembly of his native Commonwealth, and later on to a seat in the Federal 
Congress, dignifying every position to which he was chosen as well by 
his disinterested devotion to every duty as by the singular vigor of his 
enlightened understanding. 

His father, Hon. Ezekiel Cox, having emigrated to Ohio, soon be- 
came a prominent citizen of his adopted State, and among other flatter- 
ing evidences of popular consideration was chosen to represent his district 
in the higher branch of the legislature, where his intelligence and his 
integrity amply vindicated the confidence reposed in him by his con- 
stituency, while his private life was a constant illustration of highest vir- 
tues that pertain to an honorable and useful manhood. 

How far the subsequent success of their gifted son may be attributed 
to the pure example, prudent counsels, and pious solicitude of his excel- 
lent parents it would be impossible now to estimate. It may be sufficient 
for the present occasion to say, therefore, that they furnished him every 
educational advantage their modest means would afford; and that no 
more encouraging example could possibly be presented for the emulation 
of his aspiring young countrymen than the manner in which he improved 
his opportunities. Every fiber and tissiie of his soul was inspired by the 
golden truth that 

In the lexicon of youth, which fate rejerves 
For a bright manhood, there is no such word 
As Fail. 

He realized that labor was the only talisman of success. He ate no 
idle bread; he flung away no priceless moment. In his boyhood, as in 
his mature age, he was a prodigy of intellectual activity, a miracle of 
mental energy. 

On entering Brown University, whence he was graduated in the twenty- 
second year of his age, he absolved his honored father from all further 
claims upon his paternal aid, and while maintaining himself throughout 
his entire collegiate course by his own literary labors — performed at hours 
when his fellow-students were asleep or treading the seductive paths of 
idle pleasure — he carried off the highest prizes for proficiency in the 
classics, in history, in literary criticisfri, and in political economy. And 
when he left the threshhold of his alma mater, wearing the badges of her 
coveted honors on his breast, he was distinguished by the same insatiate 
thirst for knowledge, the same indomitable energy, the same untiring 
industry, the same inflexible fidelity to duty, the same earnest devotion 



216 Memorial Meeting in New York 



<!) 



to truth, the same incorruptible sense of justice, the same purity of con- 
duct, the same buoyancy of disposition, and the same fearless self-reliance 
that characterized him in the rich, ripe years of his usefulness and renown. 

From the curriculum of the university, strewn with the rarest flowers 
of classic literature, festooned with the curiously woven garlands of spec- 
ulative thought, and adorned, by the rich spoils of experimental science, 
he stepped upon the narrower and less attractive arena of the law. Nor 
did he enter its lists unarmed or ill-equipped to be battered, bruised, and 
mangled in an unequal contest with the grim old veterans of the bar. 
With his natural avidity for knowledge, he had mastered the quaint 
learning of Coke, the charming analyses of Blackstone, the dry formal- 
ities of Chitty, the abstruse principles of Fearne, the philosophic logic of 
Starkie, the learned lectures of Kent, the voluminous compilations of 
Story, and the long catalogue of other authorities that went to make up 
the ordinary armament of the legal practitioner of the period. 

With his brilliant wit, his trenchant satire, his accurate learning, his 
incisive logic, and his adroitness in debate, he might have become one 
of the most formidable and famous forensic gladiators of the age; but 
neither the lawyer's office nor the court-room afforded a world wide 
enough for his restless, active, aspiring spirit to bustle in. He conse- 
quently abandoned the bar, and after a brief tour in Europe sought the 
more congenial field of journalism, for which his tastes, his genius, and 
his rare attainments pre-eminently qualified him, and it is not surprising 
to those who are acquainted with his varied abilities that, as editor of the 
Columbus Statesman, he speedily took rank among the foremost political 
writers of our country at a period when the ablest journalists it has ever 
produced were at the zenith of their powers. 

He was soon diverted, however, from the arduous and exacting labors 
of journalism — which he had assumed in 1853 — by an appointment as 
secretary of the legation to Peru, tendered him by President Pierce, in 
1855, but returned to his native State in the following year, when he was 
elected as a member of Congress from the Columbus district, which he 
continued to represent for four consecutive terms. In 1865 he located 
in this magnificent metropolis, and in 1868 made his first appearance in 
the House as a member of Congress from New York, of which he re- 
mained one of the most distinguished and useful Representatives to the 
day of his death, with the exception of a brief interval in 1873 and 
another extending a little beyond a year, during which he was employed 
in the diplomatic service of his country as minister near the Turkish court. 



Memorial Meeting in New York. "217 

In Congress Mr. Cox found his appropriate sphere. No other forum 
could have suited his tastes so well or been more precisely adapted to his 
talents, and in that his peer in all particulars will probably never be seen 
again. Almost immediately on entering the House of Representatives 
he took a conspicuous position among the most prominent members of 
that distinguished body, which he maintained with a constantly increas- 
ing reputation for a period almost equal to the average life of a genera- 
tion. There, amid the most memorable and exciting scenes in the par- 
liamentary history of our Government, he found frequent occasion for the 
exercise of the varied faculties of his extraordinary intellect and the exhi- 
bition of his illimitable stores of information. There his remarkable 
character appeared like a diamond of purest water, fashioned with a 
thousand facets, each emitting a blaze of iridescent splendor. There its 
manifold features were presented in the clearest Hght, and there alone 
can they be considered in the rich glow of their associated beauty. 

The one trait, however, which distinguished him pre-eminendy in the 
estimation of a large majority of his fellow-men was the gentle, joyous, 
lovable disposition which constantly displayed itself in the playful wit, 
the genial humor, the kindly sentiments, and tender sympathies which 
welled up from the serene depths of his generous nature like a perennial 
fountain of bright and sparkling waters. 

It was this that nmde him a favorite everywhere with all classes and 
conditions of men, not only among the masses of his own countrymen, 
who can not recur to his honored name without a loving thought, but 
alike with the polished circle of distinguished diplomates around the Sul- 
tan's court and the stolid peasantry of Scandinavia, with the titled digni- 
taries of the proudest empires of Europe and the ignorant but liberty- 
loving Kabyles of Algeria, in the historic halls of British nobility and the 
rude tent of the wondering Bedouin, and with the diverse peoples of other 
lands as well. 

He was, indeed, the gentlest of men, and had he been asked to desig- 
nate among all the diversified transactions of his long and brilliant career 
in Congress those which afforded him the supremest pleasure, he would 
probably have mentioned his repeated and earnest appeals for universal 
amnesty; his eloquent defense of the homes and firesides of the South 
against a merciless and unconstitudonal act of confiscation ; his generous 
and disinterested services to a large class of ill-paid employes in the 
humbler grades of the public service ; his repeated manifestations of an 
earnest and active sympathy in the sufferings of the oppressed and down- 



218 Memorial Meeting in Neiu York. 

trodden kindred of thousands of his fellow-citizens of foreign birth, and 
his ultimate triumph, after laborious and long-continued effort, in the 
establishment and successful organization of an efficient Life-Saving Serv- 
ice, which has been the means of saving multitudes of valuable lives and 
of protecting myriads of happy hearthstones from the grim specters of 
desolation and despair. It may be safely said, at least, that by these and 
similar exhibitions of an enlightened philanthropy he reared for himself 
in the grateful hearts of his countrymen a monument of affection which 
will survive in the memory of their posterity long after the majestic dome 
beneath whose shadow his beneficent labors were performed shall have 
crumbled into dust. 

It would be a grave mistake to suppose, however, that because he rev- 
eled in joyous mirth and delighted, above all things, in deeds of loving 
kindness, he lacked in the least degree the sensitive, courageous spirit 
always inseparable from genuine manhood, or that he would under any 
circumstances suffer himself to be imposed upon with impunity. No man 
ever had a more delicate appreciation of the respect due to his own dig- 
nity of character or was readier to enforce it when the occasion required it. 
None knew this better than those who were unfortunate or fatuous enough 
to willfully provoke his indignation; and of the very few whose indiscre- 
tion brought upon themselves his scathing invective, his burning satire, and 
defiant scorn, none ever ventured to repeat the discouraging experiment. 

It is a mistake, moreover, to suppose that the brilliancy of his wit and 
the playfulness of his humor were the qualities in the character of Mr. 
Cox which were most admired by those who knew him best. Nothing, 
in fact, could be farther from the case; and no one could possibly regret 
more than he would have done that his merits should be measured by 
that standard alone While they recognized wit and humor, not only as 
belonging to the legitimate armory of the parliamentary champion, but 
as being often among his most potential weapons, and while they knew 
that no one ever employed them more dexterously or effectively than 
himself, they were infinitely more impressed by the substantial- equip- 
ments of his athletic intellect, which were more or less obscured, perhaps, 
in popular estimation by the glamour of those other more fascinating but 
perilous endowments. 

It is true that his tendency, as well as ability, to employ the glittering 
cimeter of satire and the no less dreaded archery of humorous ridicule 
was most extraordinary; but he was equally as capable and far more 
fond of wielding the trenchant broadsword of logic and the ponderous 



Memorial Meeting in Nezv York. 219 

battle-ax of truth. He was, in fact, one of the most serious, earnest, 
devoted, and practical of mankind. Beneath the rippling, sparkling sur- 
face of his never-failing, effervescent humor there lay the serenest depths 
of thought, an energy of will that knew no impediment, and powers of 
intellectual labor that defied fatigue. 

His hunger for information was as ravenous as the genius of famme. 
It devoured everything that could amuse the fancy, improve the mind, 
or elevate the soul. The extent and variety of his knowledge were 
amazing. There was scarcely a branch of elegant or useful learning in 
which he was not more or less proficient. He had explored all the fields 
of ancient and modern literature and culled their choicest fruits. He had 
threaded the mazes of every school of philosophy and watched with 
interest the wondrous developments of physical science. He was familiar 
with the technology of the useful arts and hymned in sweetest notes 
" the poetry of mechanism." He had examined the origin of every creed 
and was acquainted with the dogmas of all religions. He had traveled 
through many lands and enriched his mind with the results of their varied 
civilizations. He had analyzed every theory of politics and understood 
the principles of every system of jurisjirudence. Me had made his own 
Government the subject of special and conscientious study, and had every 
provision in its Constitution and every fact in its history at his fingers' 
ends. 

No one who was close enough to Mr. Cox in life to understand the 
prodigious extent and infinite variety of his attainments will mistake what 
I have said for the fulsome language of inflated panegyric, which, if liv- 
ing, he would himself despise; nor will any one, in view of those vast 
and varied stores of learning, systematically arranged in the capacious 
chambers of his well-ordered and tenacious memory, be surprised at the 
marvelous felicity of expression and readiness in debate in which he has 
rarely had an equal and never a superior among men. 

It was this abounding plenitude of accurate information which dis- 
tinguished his speeches from those of all the popular or parliamentary 
orators with whom he was associated or came in contact during his long 
and admirable public career. Did the subject in hand require an illus- 
tration from the wide range of history, a flower from the bright parterres 
of poetry, a jewel from some musty repository of antiquated lore, a golden 
grain from the sacred garners of Holy Writ, or a crystal from the crowded 
cabinet of science, did he need a principle of international law, a rule of 
enlightened jurisprudence, a precedent of parliamentary practice, or an 



220 Memorial Meclins: in Neiv York. 

incident in the public record of his antagonist, the ministering genii of 
his memory brought it instantly from his exhaustless treasure-house of 
knowledge. With the deft skill of an accomplished artist and such 
abundant and varied materials constantly at hand, his public utterances — 
whether extemporaneous or prepared — were like rich mosaics of rarest 
gems finished with a master's skill. Every apple of gold had its picture 
of silver. 

But Mr. Cox was not one of those who manufacture their wares simply 
for show. He was not only in the fore-front of every important parlia- 
mentary battle that occurred during his long period of service, but he 
was one of the most careful, painstaking, indomitable workers that ever 
occupied a seat in Congress. Often at the head of the most important 
committees in the House, he not only kept up with the multifarious bus- 
iness on his own docket, but seemed to have an intelhgent insight into 
almost every question that came up for consideration, whether it involved 
matters of important public moment or a mere claim for a few dollars on 
the Private Calendar. He was far oftener found delving in the hard-pan 
of practical labor than disporting himself in the rose-tinted clouds of 
fancy. He was mori? at home in the rugged paths of parliamentary bus- 
iness or amid the intricate details of statistical science than in the airy 
realms of poesy or the inviting fields of elegant literature. As an illustra- 
tion of this it is not necessary to recite the long catalogue of measures 
involving the most important commercial and financial interests of the 
country which he from time to time introduced or discussed. I have 
only to refer to his valuable services to our postal system or to the com- 
plete reports of the Census of 1880, which are the offspring of his wisdom 
and his labor. 

His mdustry, indeed, was simply enormous. He not only discharged 
all his manifold public duties faithfully, punctually, and ably, but in the 
intervals of his ofificial labors wrote several of the most entertaining books 
of foreign travel that ever emanated from the pen of an American writer ; 
the most complete if not the only philosophic review of American humor 
ever written ; a volume devoted to the discussion of important problems 
in economic science which would have done credit to the ablest states- 
man among his contemporaries either in this country or in Europe, be- 
sides a work of several hundred pages containing the clearest and most 
comprehensive statement of the more important features of Federal legis- 
lation for three decades that has yet been published ; yet, with all this, 
he never neglected even the most trivial duty to his humblest constituent. 



Memorial Meeting in New York. 221 

Notwithstanding his long-continued occupancy of pubhc position, Mr. 
Cox was far from being a poHtician in the lower and more common ac- 
ceptation of that term. He was firmly fixed in his convictions upon all 
questions of popular importance and as bold in their expression. He 
never " crooked the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift might fol- 
low fawning." He bowed to no behest but the imperious dictates of his 
own honest and enlightened judgment. He was no manipulator of the 
dirty machinery by which small men have so often been elevated to ex- 
alted position during the later years of our history. Every election with 
which he was ever honored was a spontaneous tribute of affectionate con- 
fidence on the part of a generous and enlightened constituency, a just 
recognition of his ability, integrity, and fidelity to the grand principles of 
constitutional hberty. 

With what boundless gratitude he regarded those marked manifesta- 
tions of popular esteem and with what deep devotion he requited them 
none knew like those he loved so well and served so faithfully. Yet his 
solicitude was not confined to the welfare of his own constituents. He 
was a patriot in the grandest, broadest sense of that word. His love 
of country amounted to a passion. It knew no section, it recognized 
no class. It embraced the impoverished people of the South as tenderly 
as the proud and prosperous population of his native State or the generous 
mhabitants of the great city in which he had made his home. His fealty 
to the Union was paramount to all other obligations ; his pride in its 
grandeur and power touched the extremest limit of exultant enthusiasm; 
his veneration for its Constitution was the supreme sentiment of his soul ; 
his faith in its destiny transcended the wildest dream of optimism. 

In faith, in feeling, in practice, in all the ardent aspirations of his soul, 
Mr. Cox was a Democrat of the purest Jeffersonian type. It was impos- 
sible, indeed, from the very nature of his moral and intellectual organiza- 
tion, that he should be otherwise. Sprung from the body of the people; 
with the most delicate appreciation of their inherent rights, with the 
liveliest solicitude for their individual happiness and social prosperity, 
with an abounding confidence in their capacity to control their own affairs, 
and detesting from the innermost depths of his being everything savoring 
of unfairness, inequality, or oppression, his brightest ideal of political organ- 
ism was "a government of tire people, by the people, and for the people," 
a government instituted for the benefit of the governed, and not for the ag- 
grandizement of the governing class, a government so administered as to 
secure "equal and exact justice to all, with exclusive privileges to none." 



222 Memorial Meeting in Nexv York. 

Trusts, monopolies, and all other contrivances resulting from the abuse 
or non-user of legislative authority for the emolument of the few at the 
expense of the many were the objects of his supreme abhorrence. He 
beheved in the absolute inviolability of private property, except when 
required for public uses with just compensation, and that any taxation, in 
whatever form or for whatever purpose, beyond what was necessary to 
defray the legitimate expenses of the Government, economically admin- 
istered, was not only in violation of its organic law but of the funda- 
mental principles of civil liberty. He held with Mr. Justice Miller, one 
of the most distinguished members of our Supreme Bench, that " to lay 
with one hand the power of the Government on the property of the citi- 
zen and with the other to bestow it upon favored individuals, to aid in 
private enterprises and build up private fortunes, is none the less a robbery 
because it is done under the forms of law and is called taxation." He 
felt that to despoil one citizen of his property and transfer it to another 
under the pretext of promoting the general welfare was the very essence 
of despotism. It was impossible for him to discriminate between the 
morals of communism, which would ravage the coffers of the rich and 
distribute their hoarded millions among the poor as a means for the pro- 
motion of popular prosperity, and those of an insidious system of spolia- 
tion under the guise of a bounty taxation which robs the rich and poor 
alike for the benefit of a favored few. For the one he might have had 
some of the respect he would probably have entertained for the brute 
courage of the highwayman, who meets his victim in the open face of 
day and boldly demands his money or his hfe; for the other he felt some- 
thing like the loathing with which he would have regarded the stealthy 
burglar who would creep into his chamber at midnight and rifle his pock- 
ets after having lulled him into delightful dreams of security and happi- 
ness by the administration of some poisonous drug. 

It vvas not surprising, therefore, that, with his exquisite sense of justice, 
his extreme love of fairness, his clear apprehension of what was right, his 
detestation of all that was wrong, and his ever-abiding interest in the 
welfare of the masses, as well as his reverent respect for the limitations 
of the Constitution, Mr. Cox should have been found among the earliest 
and most persistent advocates of a " tariff for revenue only." 

His numerous speeches upon tliat interesting and important question 
of public policy are among the most remarkable ever delivered before a 
deliberative assembly. They disclose an enormous mine of intellectual 
treasures. Radiant with wit, rich in learning, replete with facts, and vig- 



Memorial Meeting in New York. 223 

orous in logic, they are like strings of rarest pearls strung on threads of 
gold. In all the recent discussions of that vital subject, tremendous in 
power, exhaustive in research, and fervid in eloquence as they have been, 
there can scarcely be found a single argument or a solitary fact illustrat- 
ing the views of his party in relation to it which he had not presented in 
some form or other long before. He had fathomed it in all its depths 
and shoals, and dragged to light every valuable thought, every tenable 
principle, and every just conclusion that the most active and inquisitive 
intellect could find beneath them. A compilation of his brilliant and 
instructive utterances concerning it would form one of the most enter- 
taining and useful text-books that could be placed in the hands of the 
student of economic science. 

Nor was his interest less intense, his vigilance less alert, or his labors 
less untiring when any other proposition affecting the property-rights or 
the private prosperity of the masses was presented for consideration. He 
maintained with the illustrious apostle of his political creed that there 
should be the most rigid economy in the expenditure of public moneys, 
in order that labor, the ultimate source from which the "general coffers 
of the state" are invariably replenished, should be lightly burdened. I 
would not be understood as intimating, however, that he was one of those 
who frequently, from a want of any other merit to commend them, seek 
a cheap reputation by posing conspicuously as guardian angels of the 
public Treasury, nor that he was ever on any occasion influenced by a 
niggardly spirit of parsimony, that would begrudge to the public service 
sufficient means to secure the highest degree of efficiency in any of its 
departments. On the contrary, when any such laudable purpose was in- 
volved, he was uniformly actuated by the most enlightened liberality. 
But, honest to the last degree, punctiliously faithful to every trust, and 
despising from the uttermost depths of his soul the foul spirits of fraud 
and corruption, too frequently found brooding like unclean birds in 
various branches of the Government service, no man ever set his face 
more firmly against all appropriations to be wasted in criminal extrava- 
gance, lavished in gratuities upon unworthy objects, or squandereil in 
dirty jobs and nefarious schemes. In that regard, in the actual preserva- 
tion of the Treasury from the "felonious fingers" of peculation and pil- 
lage, he was without doubt among the most useful and efticient members 
of the House of Representatives throughout his three decades of service 
in the Federal Congress. During those thirty years, as has been said of 
him by one of his most impartial friends, it is safe to assert that he was 



224 Memorial Meeting i>i Neiv York. 

never approached by the low manipulator of any fraudulent scheme with 
a dishonorable proposal; such a thing, indeed, was an impossibility. His 
pure integrity was a perpetual rebuke to everything bearing the semblance 
of dishonesty. The filthy ministers of corruption and plunder slunk away 
abashed and cowering from his presence. No man dared to ask him to 
support a measure unless he was satisfied that it was free from the 
slightest taint of dishonesty and demanded by the necessities of the Gov- 
ernment. 

Regarding the people as the original source and ultimate repository of 
all political authority, and government as a mere agency contrived by 
themselves for the protection of their own rights, the preservation of their 
own liberties, and the promotion of their own happiness, with its duties 
clearly defined and its powers carefully limited by the Constitution, Mr. 
Cox realized in its fullest force the conclusion logically resulting from 
those undisputed premises and so aptly expressed in the golden maxim 
that " a public office is a public trust, " and with that conscientious sense 
of the sanctity of every obligation which influenced him in the discharge 
of every duty in life, he not only made it the guiding star of liis own 
official conduct on all occasions, but felt that the integrity of our institu- 
tions demanded that every one who occupied a position of public re- 
sponsibility should be required to do so likewise. 

He was not only in favor of a " rigid arraignment of all abuses of pub- 
lic trust before the established tribunals of public justice, as well as the 
great bar of popular opinion," but was earnestly opposed to the appoint- 
ment of any one to official position unless he could sustain the fullest 
test of the Jeffersonian touchstone of honesty, qualification, and fidelity 
to the Constitution. Entertaining such views, it was but natural that he 
should be an ardent and active advocate of civil-service reform and a 
zealous supporter of the statute which was passed by Congress with the 
view of accomplishing that purpose, notwithstanding its provisions fell 
far short of his own conceptions of what such a measure should embrace 
and his settled conviction that in many respects it would fail to meet the 
standard of popular expectation. He nevertheless regarded it as the 
initial step in the right direction; the inauguration of a policy which, if 
faithfully carried out, would ultimately relieve the Government to a great 
extent of evils of incompetency and purify many of its branches from the 
hideous corruption with which he had so often seen them polluted. He 
therefore sustained its administration as vigorously as he had supported 
its enactment. 



Memorial Meeting in Neiv York. 225 

But no other subject of a mere temporal character so completely filled 
the soul of Mr. Cox as the sublime perfection he saw in our Federal 
Union. It inspired him with the same rapt enthusiasm with which the 
devout astronomer regards the wondrous mechanism of the star-decked 
heavens. To him it was a splendid galaxy of sovereign and co-equal 
Commonwealths, bound to a common center by an indissoluble tie, upon 
which the preservation of each depended, and all moving in their ap- 
pointed paths with the precision and harmony which marked the music 
of the spheres in the glorious dawn when " the morning stars sang to- 
gether, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." He knew of no other 
means among men for preserving the priceless heritage of liberty it was 
designed to secure, and made every other consideration subsidiary to its 
perpetuity. 

To that all-absorbing end he felt that the complete autonomy of the 
States was as essential as the most sedulous maintenance of Federal 
authority within its legitimate sphere. He knew that the Union could 
no more exist without the power in its integral parts to perform their 
proper functions than the life of the human body could survive the com- 
plete paralysis of its various members. He knew that consolidation and 
disintegration were equally certain to result in its absolute destruction, 
just as the relaxation of one of the mysterious forces which anchor the 
solar system to its center would hurl the planets into the vortex of chaotic 
ruin, while a suspension of the other would send them " darkling through 
eternal space." 

Therefore, in the true spirit of the great founder of his chosen school 
of political philosophy, he was ever found foremost among the most zeal- 
ous champions of " home rule, " defending the State governments in all 
their rights, dignity, and equality "as the most competent administrators 
of our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican 
tendencies, " while as ardently supporting " the General Government in 
its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-canchor of our peace at home 
and our safety abroad." In these simple but sublime principles he dis- 
cerned the true foundation, and in their beautiful co-relation the keystone 
of the grand political arch which spans our continent from ocean to 
ocean. Take either away, and in his judgment the stupendous struct- 
ure would topple into ruins. With their necessary corollaries so tersely 
formulated by Mr. Jefferson in his first inaugural they were to him the 
crowning truths of a political gospel whose precepts he followed with the 
faith of a devotee, and whose doctrines he would have maintained with 
H. Mis. 243 15 



226 Memorial Meeting in Neiv York. 

the constancy of a martyr. They were his pillar of cloud by day and his 
pillar of fire by night, and it was his intrepid fidelity to their guidance, 
at all times and under all circumstances, which gave that well-rounded 
symmetry and consistency to his public life which have always challenged 
the admiration of his political friends and foes alike. 

It was not the eflulgence of his genius, however, by which this great 
man was most endeared to those who knew and loved him best. It was 
the milder glow of those gentle virtues which lit up his private character 
with "the lambent purity of the stars." The incarnation of personal 
honor and the very soul of sincerity, perpetually overflowing with the 
milk of human kindness; free " from envy, hatred, malice, and all un- 
charitableness," his social relations were of the purest, gentlest, loveliest 
character, constantly illustrated by the most generous self-abnegation and 
unremitting thoughtfulness for the happiness of others. No tender plea 
for the sake of sweet charity ever met his ear, whether from the humble 
beggar on the street or the promoters of some laudable work of public 
benefaction, but his purse was instantly open and his most active sympa- 
thy immediately enlisted. 

All evil-speaking and unkind allusion in disparagement of others were 
as foreign to his habit as they were repulsive to his nature. He made a 
close and constant study of the Holy Scriptures, and adopted their divine 
precepts as the criterion of his conduct in all things. To him the golden 
rule was not merely the highest result of the most enlightened social phi- 
losophy, but a direct emanation from Divinity itself, and the most fervent 
petition in his humble prayer— whether on committing his soul to the 
fatherly care of his great Creator on lying down at night or in his morn- 
ing offering of reverent gratitude for the light of a new day — was that he 
might be taught to extend to all men the generous forgiveness, the tender 
sympathy, and the loving kindness he would be glad to receive from 
them. 

Of his religious views he rarely ever spoke, and then only with his most 
intimate friends. He preferred to exhibit the principles of his creed in his 
practice, instead of proclaiming his sentiments from the house-top. They 
were to him too sacred for the coarse ribaldry of the vulgar scoffer, the 
cold cynicism of the skeptic, or the uncharitable censorship of the narrow 
sectarian. But those who lived nearest to his heart and were permitted 
to look in upon the secret chambers of his inner life found there not only 
the "pleasing longing after immortality" which filled the soul of the an- 
cient philosopher, but the most serene and childlike faith in the full real- 



Memorial Meeting in New York. 227 

ization of that Heaven-sent hope through the priceless promises of the 
gospel. 

Fortunate as he was in many respects, infinitely beyond the average of his 
race, Mr. Cox found the crowning blessing of his beautiful life in the affec- 
tionate devotion and genial companionship of his gifted and loving wife. 
She was Miss Julia A. Buckingham, whom he married at Zanesville, Ohio, 
October ii, 1849. Pure in spirit as thrice-sifted snow; sweet in dispo- 
sition as the breath of new-blown roses ; gentle in manner as the evening 
zephyr kissing the violet's eye ; faithful to every obligation and cheerful 
in the discharge of every duty that affection, humanity, or religion could 
impose, she realized her husband's brightest ideal of the highest, holiest 
type of noble womanhood. To him she was indeed the pearl beyond all 
price. His constant companion, his truest friend, his trusted adviser in 
all things, she was to him a crown of glory and a song of rejoicing 
throughout all the days of their married life. She shared all his high am- 
bitions and gloried in his grand successes. Her tender sympathies sup- 
ported him in the dark hours of sorrow and her cheering smile gave a 
lovelier glow to the bright rays of returning joy. Hand in hand they 
trod life's journey together, strewing its pathway with the rich jewels of 
gentleness and charity, until, in the full flush of his fame, with his blush- 
ing honors thick upon him, he was beckoned to a brighter clime — to tne 
real " Wonderland " — whither his pure spirit is wooing her in the soft, sweet 
music of an angel's whisper. 

I have done. I need not detain you longer with this pleasing but 
mournful theme. It is one upon which I shall delight to-linger with the 
fondness of a brother's love when I, too, shall have crossed the cold, 
dark waters of death. I turn from it now with a sad sense that the 
beautiful story of a life so lovely can never be told in any poor words of 
mine. The purest offering 1 can lay upon the tomb of my dead friend is 
the silent homage of my soul. 



BENEDICTION OF REV. RABBI G. GOTTHEIL, D. D., OF TEMPLE EMANUEL. 

May that all-merciful Power, whom to invoke is our highest privilege, 
grant that in the good man whose loss we mourn may be fulfilled the 
promise given by the mouth of the prophet : "And the wise shall shine 
like the brightness of the firmament and those that lead many to right- 
eousness like the stars of the heaven forever ; " and also this : " that the 



228 Memorial Meeting in New York. 

memory of the just shall be for blessing." May that blessing appear 
whatever time we are called upon to perform our duty as citizens in that 
we follow closely the steps which he trod whilst among us. May peace 
reigli within our borders and good-will be shown by one towards the other 
throughout our land. Amen. 

Mr. CuMMiNGS. Mr. Speaker, as a further mark of respect to 
the memory of Hon. Samuel Sullivan Cox, late a member 
of the House of Representatives from the State of New York, 
I move that the House do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE, JULY 8, 1890. 



The President pro tempore. The resolutions of the House 
of Representatives will be read. 
The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, April 19, 1890. 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, that 
opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of Hon. Samuel 
Sullivan Cox, late a Representative from the State of New York. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased, and in recognition of his eminent abiHties as a distinguished 
pubHc servant, the House at the conclusion of these memorial proceed- 
ings shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate this resolution to the Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be instructed to communicate a copy of 
these resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

Mr. HiscoCK. Mr. President, I oflFer the resolutions which I 
send to the desk. 

The President pro tempore. The resolutions will be read. 
The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has received with profound sorrow the an- 
nouncement of the death of the honorable Samuel Sullivan Cox, late 
a member of the House of Representatives from the State of New York, 
and tenders to the family of the deceased the assurance of sympathy in 
their sad bereavement. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended that op- 
portunity may be given for fitting tributes to the memory of the deceased 
and to his eminent public and private virtues, and that as a further mark 
of respect the Senate at the conclusion of such remarks shall adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to transmit to the family of 

the deceased a copy of these resolutions. 

229 



230 Address of Mr. Hiscock, of Nezv York^ on the 



ADDRESS OF Mr, HISCOCK, OF NEW YORK. 

Mr. President: I first met Mr. Cox after he and I were 
elected to the Forty-fifth Congress in part to represent the State 
of New York in the House of Representatives. He then had 
an established national reputation as a brilliant, able, and versa- 
tile orator and conscientious and patriotic legislator. Mr. Cox, 
sir, was an uncompromising partisan upon those questions that 
divided the two great political parties during the memorable 
period that he was in public life, and fully possessed of the 
courage of his convictions. He never hesitated to champion 
them or assail with the eloquence, logic, wit, ridicule, and 
satire at his command — and few men were endowed with his 
resources — the policy of the opposing party. But in ni}- service 
with him in the House he received — and it was due him — a 
large degree of credit for sincerity, worthy motives, and honora- 
ble methods, however earnest his attacks were or troublesome 
to his adversaries. 

If I pay this tribute to his memory it will hardly be said that 
I am too friendly a critic, for in our political faiths we had 
nothing in common, and never that I now recall approached so 
near each other and to the party line as to create the suggestion 
of a sympathy between us. I speak, sir, of part}- questions 
alone; upon many others we rarely seriously differed. Repre- 
senting the same State, both devoted to her sers'ice, jealous of 
her honor, and proud of her history, we were drawn together 
by the common cause, if it were po.ssible, of adding new luster 
to her renown, rather than by any natural law of selection, and 
became personal friends, and thoroughly in harmony in what- 
ever in our public careers was personal to each other. What I 



Life and Charactci- of Samuel S. Cox. 231 

mean is that in those struggles that are consummated by the 
survival of the stronger, if not always the fittest, there was the 
utmost cordiality, often co-operation and confidences. 

It is often said of those occupying the most exalted public 
positions while living that their vacant places would be so 
quickly and well filled that the notice of death and the funeral 
ceremonies would alone advertise the change. There have 
been marked exceptions to this, and the death of Mr. Cox is 
one of them. 

He was a ready, cogent debater, who always enlisted the in- 
terest of his hearers, and he easily maintained the most advanced 
line of recognized parliamentary leadership in the controversy. 
His party friends yielded him his position without murmur or 
jealousy. His opponents recognized it, for to leave him unan- 
swered was an abandonment b)- them of the contest. He was 
often so eloquent in the use of language that while he was 
cogent he strongly appealed to the sympathies, the hearts, and 
all the noblest and mosr exalted human sentiments. 

Confessedly he was witty and had the most difficult task of 
maintaining the reputation, and I believe no one has ever in a 
service of the same length as his coined more witticisms than 
our friend. His public utterances abounded in illustrations 
entertaining and instructive. He must have been a great reader 
of books, and of books generally, for he was always well equipped 
from those resources. His eloquence, wit, appeals, illustrations, 
and logic were characterized by a genuine, earnest love for the 
good, admiration for the great, and the desire to be kind to, 
considerate of, and improve the moral and material conditions 
of those in any degree dependent upon legislation or the bounty 
and guardianship of the nation, and he favored laws which he 
believed promoted the interest of his countrymen and their 



232 Address of Mr. Hiscock, of New York, on the 

moral and intellectual advancement. He was an e\-er-living 
spring of love, generous sentiments, and kindly deeds. The 
sentiment of hate — I mean that hate which is cruel or prompts 
revenge — was foreign to his nature. 

Mr. Cox, though an eloquent orator and able debater, was 
not a political leader in the sense that a general is a great gen- 
eral. I mean that he was not one of those to whom it seems 
to be allotted to lead parties, who have followers bearing their 
names, and who seem to lose a distinctive political existence 
apart from it. He possessed too kind a heart and his nature 
was too emotional ; his taste for literature and its laurels, for 
travel and its pleasures, his enjoyment of art and all that is 
loving and lovely and good were too absorbing. He would 
have starved and died if limited for his enjoyments and pleasures 
to the victories of a great political organizer. I do not mean 
by this that he was not strong in leadership when the occasion 
and time were to his liking, but that all occasions and times 
did not call him from all other, and to him often more charm- 
ing, pursuits and more delightful employments. 

In the memorial volume will be presented the record of his 
social, domestic, literary, and political life, .spoken by loving 
and admiring friends. I have not preferred to dwell upon them, 
but rather upon his, to me, most charming character and ac- 
complishments. I said earlier, his absence will be missed and 
marked. Memorial exercises, funeral orations, and eulogiums 
are unnecessar>' to remind us that he has left his accustomed 
place in our social life, parliamentary leadership, and the service 
of his country, and that it is still vacant. 

Mr. President, we will strew flowers upon his grave; each 
one must be rich and perfect in tints and shades, and with its 
own peculiar perfume, each symbolizing purity, love, grace, 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 233 

lofty aspiration or holy inspiration, and voicing an appropriate 
sentiment. Appropriate flowers have always been messengers 
of affection and regard; as snch we lay these upon his grave. 



ADDRESS OF MR. VOORHEES, OF INDIANA. 

Mr. President: More than the third of a century has passed 
away since Samuel Sullivan Cox sprang full-armed and 
equipped into the arena of public life and achieved a national 
reputation. He was first elected to Congress in the portentous, 
ill-boding year of 1856, and at once took his place as a leader 
in the debates which sectionalism then for the first time con- 
jured into a bloody and fatal meaning over the organization and 
condition of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and the 
dangerous and far-reaching questions incident thereto. From 
that time until the loth day of September last, when he fell 
asleep on earth to wake in eternity, his career was continuously 
before the public eye as if under a calcium light, and it was at all 
times brilliant, fascinating, able, instructive, and under all cir- 
cumstances as free from stain, speck, or blemish as the official 
life of Cato, the Roman censor. 

Sir, in many respects the career of Mr. Cox was remarkable 
and without a parallel in the history of American affairs. Born 
in the Valley of the Mississippi, he attained high eminence 
there, and then, instead of following the westward-moving star 
of empire, which usually guides the way for American ambi- 
tion in quest of new fields of action and of triumph, he turned 
his face to the East, and sought the oldest, the strongest, and 
most competitive center of American civilization. The great 
Commonwealth of Ohio has furnished forth manv of her native 



234 Address of Mr. I'oorhees, of Indiana, on the 

sons to other States for the public service, and is now furnish- 
ing the President of the United States and two of the most im- 
portant members of his Cabinet, together with six members 
of the United States Senate; but Mr. Cox was the first and only 
one to go to an older and abler empire State than his own, and 
there to win a lofty civic distinction and be crowned with the 
evergreen laurel of imperishable honor and fame. 

Ohio and New York may exult together over the successful 
and beneficent labors of his active and useful life, and together 
they may bend in sorrow over his untimely grave. The official 
record shows that he was elected four times to Congress from 
Ohio and twelve times from New York. No other such record 
as this can be found in the history of our Government, and we 
instinctively turn to the theater where he so long appeared in 
order to study some of the leading elements of a character 
which commanded such success and such unwonted popular ap- 
proval. If it is true that a man is known by the company he 
keeps, then indeed Mr. Cox must take very high rank from the 
beginning to the end of his service in the House. He kept 
company in debate on the greatest questions with the ablest in- 
tellects of their day and generation. He was in ever}- race, from 
start to finish, with those who were swiftest and of best endur- 
ance. 

Passing over the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses, in 
which he distinguished himself in debate on the Douglas side 
of the Lecompton question, with many of the strongest men 
from the South, he rises to my mind and memory here to-day 
as he appeared when we first met as members of the Thirty- 
seventh Congress at its called .session, on the 4th of July, 1861. 
Sir, how distant and awful that period appears to us looking 
back upon it now, as we sit here in the soft, sweet sunlight of 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 235 

peace and union. It towers up seemingly as a far-off volcanic 
height, once fraught with destruction, but now extinct and 
only enveloped in the haze and mist and vapor of sad and by- 
gone memories. 

There was a turbulent spirit abroad when the Thirty-seventh 
Congress was chosen, and every intelligent mind discovered 
danger in i860 as certainly as the experienced mariner dis- 
covers the deadly storm when it is swiftly coming up. It 
is the philosophy of political communities, as shown by the 
history of the human race, that agitations arising from deep- 
seated causes never fail to put strong men in the front lines of 
action — sometimes their strength already known, but more fre- 
quently developed, or, rather, manifested, after being assigned 
to their positions. This was eminently true of the period from 
i860 to 1865 in this country, and to a certain extent it was true 
of the Thirty-seventh Congress. Into that body came men ap- 
parently fashioned and adapted b}- nature to such a crisis; and 
others of the same mold and stamp, but more fully developed 
by the startling events of the times, came afterward, and more 
numerously, into the Thirty-eighth Congress. 

Into the Thirty-seventh Congress came Thaddeus Stevens, 
then in his old age called for the first time to enact a mighty 
part in human affairs for which the hand of nature had espe- 
cially equipped him. Never in all history, I think, has there 
been such a leader on the floor of a parliamentary body. Not in 
the history of the Grecian or Roman democracies, when most 
ruled and guided by popular favorites, nor amidst the civil wars 
of England, can there be found a character so dominant over 
others without any reliance- whatever upon the sword. Stevens 
had no need to resort to a vulgar violation or abuse of the rules 
of the House in order to establish his supremacy. 



236 Address of Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana, on the 

He ruled his party majority, and thus ruled the House by the 
force of a giant intellect, combined with an iron will, and some- 
times set on fire by those tremendous passions of the human 
heart which rage when the tempest rages, direct the whirlwind, 
and outride the utmost fury of the storm. Often while watch- 
ing his wonderful displays of power over the House I have 
busied myself in taking up in review the various leaders of the 
French Revolution, and wondering which one he would most 
nearly have resembled had he lived and acted through those 
convulsive scenes. My mind always inclined to Danton for a 
comparison, and yet with only a partial assent. They were 
alike in their power, by brief impassioned speech, to stir the 
blood of men and to impel them to action like a bugle-call to 
battle. They were alike in their mental superiority, their 
stormy' tempers, and the gloomy vein of misanthropy which be- 
set them, but there the comparison seems to end. 

The American was more sincere and filled with more definite 
and nobler purposes than the Frenchman. Though Danton 
died of the guillotine, yet with his dying words "he sneered at 
the cause for which his noble head, a moment later, fell in the 
dust. Stevens had great aims in view from the first, and he 
pursued them unsparingly. The destruction of slavery' and the 
downfall of the political power whicli it upheld were the 
supreme objects of his life and inspired him, not so much with 
love for the slave as with hatred toward the people of his own 
race who inherited the negro in bondage and had the care of 
him. He lived to witness the fulfillment of his dearest wishes, 
and was then laid down to rest, according to his own directions, 
in the colored church-yard at his old home. 

Owen Lovejoy was also a member of the Thirty-seventh Con- 
gress, a man of powerful and inflammatory eloquence, hot and 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 237 

bitter in his political convictions, and animated in his hostility 
to the South by a personal grievance in the death of a brother 
at Alton, 111. The names of Roscoe Conkling, Schuyler Col- 
fax, Henry J. Raymond, Francis Thomas, of Maryland, John 
F. Farnsworth, and others of higlj ability and national stand- 
ing might be cited and dwelt upon to show the strength and 
resources of the overwhelming majority in the House at that 
time. 

At a later day and into the Thirty-eighth Congress came Gar- 
field, with his industrious, scholarly methods and almost boyish 
enthusiasm; Blaine, with whose brilliant. Prince Rupert style 
of parliamentary warfare we are all familiar; and Schenck, who, 
.in my opinion, was the best real debater of the actual matter 
in hand of them all, the hardest and most direct hitter in short, 
turn-about speeches, and the fairest and readiest in recognizing 
the force of his adversary's blows. Sir, it was in company and 
in combat with these men and others more or less like them 
that Mr. Cox was to be found for nearly thirty years of his life. 
How well he bore himself through it all, sans peiir^ sans reproche, 
the voluminous records amply disclose, and even his opponents 
have always testified. 

If called upon to point out to the emulating young men of 
the country the traits of character which most conduced to Mr. 
Cox's great success, I would say that, aside from his high order 
of natural ability, he was most indebted to an undaunted courage 
and a never-wearying industry. These two qualities brought 
him into every conflict always ready and never afraid. He read 
everything with a marvelous faculty for the rejection of the 
chaff, the husks, and the shells, and for the assimilation of all 
else to his own use. He kept scrap-books on all subjects, and 
his drawers, not only at his home, but in his desk at the House, 



238 Address of Air. I'oorhees., of Indiana, on the 

were well stored magazines of fixed ammunition for any and 
all sorts of political conflict. 

He always approached an important and hotly contested dis- 
cussion in the House with a joyous and confident air, and his 
friends never dreaded the result when they saw him rise and 
turn to his opponents with the light of battle in his face. He 
shrank from no odds and never halted to count the number or 
the quality of his adversaries. He relied on the justice of his 
own cause and the strength of his own preparations, and then, 
with the steady and splendid courage of a knight in the days of 
the tournament of old, he met the chosen and the ablest cham- 
pions that were sent against him. His was in every respect an 
intrepid nature. He was a brave man, mentally, morally, and^ 
physically. He laughed at danger in its face. 

In the history of Henry of Navarre it is written that within 
the first hour of his birth his jubilant Gascon grandfather per- 
fumed his infant lips with the clove and wet them with wine, 
in order, as he said, that the royal-blooded child might, when 
he grew to manhood, have within his breast a bold and at the 
same time a gay and mirthful heart. And so in other instances, 
without the clove and the wine, hearts have been filled with 
courage and with the sunshine of mirth and humor, and have 
borne themselves in every manly conflict of life with as much 
gallantry and true chivalry as he who wore the white plume 
and bade his soldiers follow it as their oriflamme. 

Mr. Cox was often criticised during his life-time, and by 
those who thought thus to injure him, because he was a partisan 
in his political faith and action. His critics were mistaken, 
not in the fact that he was a partisan in the fullest and best 
sense of that term, but in assuming that such a fact was injurious 
to his career for usefulness, to his character as a lover of his 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 239 

kind, or to his reputation and standing with all honorable men 
of whatever party, persuasion, or creed of belief and practice. 
He did indeed believe in the party to which he belonged, and 
defended its principles in the open arena against all comers. 
May I not ask, however, whether much respect is due to any 
one in public life who does less than this ? 

Political parties are absolute necessities in free governments. 
They are the only methods known to the wisdom and experi- 
ence of enlightened history whereby concentration of thought, 
agreement of opinion, unity of purpose, and concert of action 
can be secured for the accomplishment of great results. Errors 
may creep into party organizations, but their cure lies in that 
general spirit and purpose of reform which inspires the honest 
membership of all parties, rather than in an outcr>' against the 
existence of the parties themselves. 

In every struggle for liberty among the Greeks and the 
Romans, in every contest for the enlargement and security of 
popular rights in England or anywhere else in modern Europe, 
and in all the mighty movements and convulsions which have 
taken place for freedom in this western hemisphere, the leaders 
of the people have simply been the leaders of great political par- 
ties and have accomplished all their vast and glorious results 
through compact, unified, and aggressive political organiza- 
tions. Washington himself was a leader in civil life of the 
Whig party against the party of the Tories, and but for this 
fact would not have been chosen to command the armies of 
the Revolution. Jefferson and Jackson were party men, and 
so, likewise, were Lincoln and Grant. It is the small man, 
not the great, who deems himself wiser than the associated 
wisdom of his times, and who in official station distends him- 
self out of all proportion with the idea that he is stronger. 



240 Address o/ Air. I oor/u'e's, of Indiana^ on Ihe 

greater, and knows more than the . party which created and 
elevated him. 

Bi:t as we recall and dwell for a moment on Mr. Cox's grand 
loyalty and adherence to his party and its policies, how broad 
and comprehensive appear the whole tenor and spirit of his life 
and conduct; how like universal sunshine on growing fields 
and blooming flowers, his warm philanthropy, his active benevo- 
lence, his generous, helpful deeds shine forth in ever\- line of 
his public service! Liberality was the law of his being; his 
soul was lit up with love for the brotherhood of man, and no 
narrow or selfish thought or purpose ever darkened its cham- 
bers. He never had any doubt who was his neighbor or of the 
meaning of the golden rule. 

Had he been on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho when 
the stranger was found stripped, wounded, and half dead, he 
would have relieved the Samaritan of the task of furnishing oil 
and wine, of binding up wounds, and of paying the stranger's 
bill in advance for proper care at the inn. Henry Cla>' filled 
the civilized world with the music of his eloquence in sym- 
pathy with the oppressed Greeks in 1824. It is not too much 
to say that Samuel S. Cox, in recent years, with wider infor- 
mation on his subject, greater knowledge of the different races 
of the earth, and with a braver and loftier benevolence than was 
required of the great Kentuckian, challenged the attention of 
his own countrymen and of all nations to the brutal and bar- 
baric treatment of the downtrodden Hebrews of Poland and 
throughout all the vast, dark, and hopeless regions of Russian 
despotism. 

His powerful and eloquent protest aroused public opinion, 
quickened consciences, and put ancient l^liiid prejudice to 
shame in every enlig:htened land beneath the sun, so that now 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 241 

the sons and daughters of Israel in the dominions of the Czar 
and elsewhere are safer and happier because of the words he 
spoke and the expression he secured in the American Congress. 
His heart went out to helpless and suffering people, and he 
visited those who were sick and in prison. His bold, deter- 
mined, and efficient efforts in behalf of an exchange of prisoners 
during the most resentful and deadliest period of the war be- 
tween the North and the South will not only be enshrined for- 
ever in the archives of his Government, but they have also been 
written to his credit by the recording angel in that high realm 
where the blue and the gray are alike liberated from prisons 
and from pain and where they have already welcomed the com- 
ing of their common benefactor. 

While Mr. Cox discussed amply and upon full preparation 
every question within the entire range of government. State 
and national, yet it will be found by the student of history that 
his most conspicuous labors and his most eloquent and im- 
passioned speech were in behalf of those who were helpless to 
labor for themselves. When the war of the sections was over 
and the South was a wreck; when her States were torn from 
their foundations and demolished as cities are by cyclones; when 
her people were bankrupt, disfranchised, and standing amidst 
their ruined homes with nothing left save the inextinguishable 
honor, courage, and recuperative energies which belong to a 
heroic and glorious race, then it was that Mr. Cox seemed to 
gather a new inspiration, and he flung himself into the tre- 
mendous debates which followed on reconstruction and kin- 
dred questions with the learning and versatility of Burke, the 
polished wit of Sheridan, and the fiery, impassioned logic 
of Douglas. 

He who now or hereafter most carefulh- and impartially ex- 
H. Mi.s. 24.? Ifi 



242 .IM/rss of Air. I bor/ircs, of Indiana^ on the 

amines the debates in the House during the first ten years after 
the war will most fully concur in the estimate I make of Mr. 
Cox's power and resources in parliamentary warfare. He had 
supported the Government in its efforts to suppress the rebellion ; 
he had voted men and money without stint or limit; but when 
the vanquished were at the mercy of power and the legions of 
Lee and Stonewall Jackson were scattered to fight no more for- 
ever, he took the side of those who were voiceless here in their 
own behalf; he espoused the cause of the weak, and held over 
their heads, to protect them from further blows, a shield 
stronger, more impenetrable, and more glorious than was forged 
and wrought by Vulcan for Achilles— the shield of the Consti- 
tution. 

The restoration of the States, and not their reconstruction 
and re-admission into the Union from which they had no power 
to secede, was his policy of statesmanship for that anomalous 
period. He believed the honor of the Southern people could 
be trusted in their relations v/ith the Federal Government, and 
he was therefore in favor of rehabilitating them at once in all 
thei^ former rights as American citizens, subject simply to the 
elimination of slavery. There are those who believe that Mr. 
Lincoln, had he lived, would have pursued substantially such a 
policy, and they al.so believe that the most disastrous results of 
his horrible and untimely death were the reconstruction and 
military occupation of the Southern States growing out of the 
supreme distrust and hostility at that time between the legis- 
lative and executive departments of the Government. 

Turning to other subjects which engaged the thought and 
action of Mr. Cox in his public service, the same broad and 
liberal principles of benevolent statesmanship are to be found in 
his works on everv hand. To his constant and unwearied 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 243 

efforts, persisted in for years and enriched with vast informa- 
tion and thrilling eloquence, the present splendid life-saving 
system of our Government owes its existence and its humane 
and heroic career. When the hardy mariner mans the liffe-boat 
and goes to the rescue of the shipwrecked and tempest-tossed 
on the angry ocean, the spirit of this brilliant, comprehensive, 
and benevolent American statesman will be with him as a pilot 
on the waters ; and when drowning men and women are carried 
from the raging surf and resuscitated on the beach their first 
conscious thought ma}' well be one of thankfulness and gratitude 
that he lived and labored so usefully and so well. 

It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Cox had quick, keen, 
and tender sympathies with such as are known as the plain, 
common people. He sincerely loved them, enjoyed their ways, 
believed in their virtues, and often talked with them in their 
neighborhood dialects. Daniel O'Connell, in his palmiest days, 
when Irish multitudes shouted with mirth or burst into tears at 
his will, never got nearer in heart, love, and sympathy to his 
audiences thau did the gifted orator whose death we mourn to- 
day. The people on their part when brought in personal 
contact with him, especially as their Representative, made him 
their political idol. I once witnessed a scene in illustration of 
this fact which will never fade from my memory. 

More than twenty years ago I was taking part in a memorable 
political campaign in Ohio, in which Thurman, Vallandigham, 
Pendleton, and other gentlemen of great note were likewise 
engaged. Judge Thurman was a candidate for governor, and, 
although defeated by a few votes for that position, he secured a 
legislature which gave him a seat in this body and thus enriched 
American history by his great and imperishable services as a 
Senator. Mr. Cox had removed from Ohio and was then livine 



244 Address of Air. I oor/n^es, of Indiana., on the 

in New York, but was called to Zanesville by a death in his 
family circle, which, of course, prevented his participation in 
the canvass then at a high stage of excitement and activity. 

During his melancholy sojourn of a few days at Zanesville he 
concluded to run down to Columbus, and it so happened that 
Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Vallandigham, and inj'self were on the train 
with him. It was not generally known that Mr. Cox was then 
in the State, and least of all was he expected at Columbus that 
da}'. When the train arrived a concourse of people, with music 
and banners, was at the depot to welcome those of the party 
who were expected, when, as we emerged from the cars, all at 
once an intent look came into every eye in that multitude, and 
then a jubilant, prolonged shout rent the air. The brilliant 
Buckeye was discovered by his old neighbors and constituents, 
and in an instant everbody was forgotten but him. It was his 
first return after going out from their midst and taking up a 
new home. He managed to get from the cars to a carriage, but 
loving hands lifted him out of it. 

I have witnessed many an ovation to popular party leaders, 
but never anything like the intense personal devotion, affection, 
and love displayed on this occasion. The last I saw of him 
many hours afterward was as he stood bare-headed in the street 
surrounded by a surging multitude of men, women, and chil- 
dren, who were shouting, laughing, crying, and clinging to 
him. His own eyes were suffused, his face was pale, and his 
lips trembled, though wreathed with smiles of rapture at his 
unexpected and wonderful welcome. Often in after years he 
and I talked over this scene together, and the memory of it re- 
mained a joy to his heart to the latest day of his life. 

If we leave Mr. Cox's official public life and at this point 
turn to other fields and forums, we find him there displaying 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 245 

the same rare ability, the same amazing rapidity of thought 
and action, which made him the commanding figure he was as 
a tribune of the people in the halls of legislation. The range 
of his information on all subjects was more extensive and more 
accurate than that of any other man I have ever known who 
was engaged in political life and in affairs of state. Nothing 
once appropriated to his mental store-house ever escaped him or 
failed to be used at the proper time. 

Whether in company with profegsors, scientists, authors, trav- 
elers, playwrights, eminent actors, humorists, or with states- 
men, jurists, and law-givers, he was equally at home, and equally 
ready to contribute something useful, brilliant, and instructive. 
He paid tribute to the memory of savants such as Morse, Agas- 
siz, and Henry with the learning and in the language of one of 
their own class. On the lecture platform, when he chose to 
ascend it, he had no superior in the richness and strength of his 
matter or in the eloquence with which it was delivered. 

I once heard him address the literary societies of one of the 
leading universities of the country on the practical details of 
chemistry as applied to the physical sciences, and it was inter- 
esting to observe two professors of chemistry watching with 
note-book and pencil in hand to detect him in a technical blun- 
der, a false quantity, an erroneous combination, or a faulty result, 
and watching in vain, as they afterward admitted, vvitli great 
surprise and admiration. He was a writer of wonderful beauty 
and grace. He wrote and published books which sparkle like 
gems in the literary world, and which will continue to delight 
and instruct generations yet to come. He loved art, and be- 
friended artists by liberal legislation and by his magnetic per- 
sonal sympathy and encouragement. 

In statuan,- and painting his taste was simply the unerring 



246 Address of Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana ^ on the 

instinct of his own lofty genius, and he frequented with enthu- 
siasm the galleries and museums where the works of the masters 
displayed their greatest beauties and glories to his eye. He 
was at the front in every movement looking to the cultivation, 
refinement, and progress of the people. He believed in the 
educating and elevating influences of libraries, and hence gave 
the sanction of his name and of his abilities to that great struct- 
ure now rising in its strength and beauty in front of this Cap- 
itol, there to stand as a hom^ for the books of the world, as a 
depository for the mental product of the human race, and as a 
monument to the enlightened spirit, the grace, and the culture of 
the American Republic at the close of the nineteenth century. 

In the midst of all his home labors, pursuits, and duties Mr. 
Cox also found time to take rank as one of the most extensive 
and intelligent travelers of modern times. With her at his 
side who had joined her name and fortune to his in the Valley 
of the Muskingum in the bright morning of youth he re- 
peatedly journeyed over Europe, Asia, and Africa, and always 
returned with the spoils of useful knowledge and an increased 
love for his own land. 

With the eye of a philosopher and with a soul filled with the 
poetry and sublimity of high historic associations, he saw 
almighty Rome, climbed the Pyramids, and stood upon Mount 
Calvary. He traversed deserts on the camel's back and camped 
at night-fall with the Bedouin at long-sought wells of fresh 
water. He floated on the waters of the Nile, and plucked the 
lotus, the Egyptians' symbol of the creation. He marked the 
course of the Euphrates; looked upon the Red Sea where Pha- 
raoh attempted to cross in pursuit of fugitive slaves; drank 
from the river Jordan, and slept by the cooling fountains of 
Damascus. He studied every variety of the human race in the 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. '247 

broad spirit of a human brotherhood, and no prejudice of caste 
or of color darkened his vision or perverted his judgment as he 
wandered amongst the motley and scattered tribes of the earth's 
most distant parts. 

But wherever he traveled and in whatever clime he sojourned 
what a stanch and genuine American he was! The sunbeams 
of the Orient, the soft skies of Italy, the grandest scenery of 
the Alps, were not so attractive or sublime to him as the face 
of nature in his own Western home. After gliding on the 
waters of the Blue Danube and along the castellated heights of 
the Rhine, he was wont to say that the Hudson between Albany 
and New York and the Ohio from Steubenville to Cincinnati 
presented more beauty to the eye of the traveler than am- other 
rivers of the world. John Milton is quoted as saying, "Our 
country is wherever we are well off." 

This was peculiarly untrue with Mr. Cox. Cosmopolite as 
he was in his philosophy and in his broad love of humanity, yet 
he was not a citizen of the world in the sense that weakened 
the ties that bound him to American institutions, to the Amer- 
ican people, and to the American flag. 

Sir, such a character as I have here but imperfectly deline- 
ated must take and hold a front place in the history of his 
country. His works were durable contributions to the cause of 
human progress, and they can not perish. Their influences 
will bide the test of time and will go on forever. Who are en- 
titled to be called great b}' the pen of the historian? Who merit 
most the grateful remembrance of posterity ? Let statues and 
monuments continue to arise in honor of warriors who gathered 
fame on battle-fields, but let it not be accepted by the public 
mind that they alone are to occupy the Walhalla of the brave, 
the palace of immortality. 



248 Address of Mr. I 'oorltccs^ of Indiana^ on the 

There are other fields besides those of war where high cour- 
age and capacity are displayed, where heroes achieve victories 
full of blessings and full of glory, and where immortal fame at- 
tends the efforts of those who live and labor for justice, liberty, 
and equality in behalf of their fellow-men. In such fields as 
these, fields of laborious thought, philanthropic purposes, and 
lofty mental conflict, Mr. Cox won for himself a place on an 
easy level with those whom the world has crowned with civic 
greatuess, and to him also belongs, and will be conceded, the 
same recognition. 

But while yet in full career, in the midst of plans, hopes, and 
comprehensive purposes for the future, borne forward by all his 
ceaseless activity, and in the unabated prime and vigor of all 
his splendid faculties, he was called by a voice for which we 
are all listening and which none can disobey. He responded 
with the manly courage of his nature, and in starting on his 
last journey, this time to cross, not the ocean channels which 
merely divide continents and hemispheres, but the realms which 
lay between time and eternity, his ouly regret was the separa- 
tion from his devoted and gifted wife, who from youth to age 
had been his fellow-traveler, his companion, his comfort, his 
beloved. He felt that he had not been a slothful servant nor a 
loiterer in the vineyard, and that all the ends he had aimed at 
had been his country's, his God's, and truth's. 

Not a line he ever wrote, not a word he ever uttered called 
for change or apology in the interest of morals, patriotism, or 
religion. He had always believed with Solomon that a good 
name was rather to be chosen than great riches, and though he 
was a conspicuous and influential figure during periods reeking 
with venality and corruption his record at every step and at the 
close was as white and clean as the falling snow. May we not 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 249 

hope and believe that his good life goes on and his great talents 
continue to expand in knowledge and in jDower in a world where 
life is eternal ? Within less than a year before his final sum- 
mons came he talked with me of the midnight sun he once 
witnessed in the polar regions of the North. 

With eyes glowing and face lit up, he described the great 
luminary of day swinging low at midnight's still, weird hour, 
and touching apparently with its burning rim the dark waters 
of the Arctic, but never disappearing beneath them. He painted 
with all the poet's fervor and beauty its emergence from the 
shadowy and awe-inspiring aspect of its lowest point, and the 
rich and joyous effulgence with which it blazed forth again as 
it ascended the sky. In another sphere, more radiant and more 
restful than this, he has beheld another sun which never sets 
and in whose light his soul has realized the full fruition of 
Christian faith and Christian works. 

Associate and delight of my earlier and later years, jov and 
charm of every hour we ever spent together, faithful and be- 
loved friend of a lifetime, farewell! Hail, and farewell until 
we meet aeain! 



ADDRESS OF Mr, Sherman, of Ohio. 

Mr. President: The death-roll of public men is lengthening 
with unusual rapidity, so that now but few remain of those who 
shared in the exciting and dangerous scenes in Congress pre- 
ceding the civil war. The death of Mr. Cox strikes from the 
list of the living one conspicuous actor in those scenes, and now 
it becomes my duty, as one of the few survivors, to pay a brief 
but just tribute to the qualities of head and heart that made him 
and kept him a leader among the public men of our country for 



250 Address of Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, on the 

a period of more than thirty-three years, longer than the average 
life of a generation. This duty is the more imperative upon 
me as he was a native of Ohio, for forty years a resident, and for 
eight years a Representative in Congress from that State, hon- 
ored and respected by all of whatever party or creed, and beloved 
by his associates as but few in political life can hope to be. 

I can also speak of him from a longer personal acquaintance 
than any one in either House, for I have known him or his 
kindred from almost the days of my boyhood. We were born 
in neighboring counties, he one year later than I. My father 
and his were associated as judge and clerk of the supreme court 
of Ohio. I knew of him as early as 1853, ^'^ '^^^^ editor of the 
Ohio Statesman, a Democratic paper published at Columbus, 
the organ of that part)' in Ohio, but my personal acquaintance 
and association with him commenced with his election in 1856 
as a member of the House of Representatives. His distinguished 
career in public life since that time has been eloquently stated 
by Senators who have preceded me. I prefer to speak of him 
as I think of him, as he appeared in social life, as a companion, 
a traveler, a writer of history, and of almost every form of lit- 
erary composition. 

While Mr. Cox was a successful leader in political life and 
rendered his party due fealty on purely political questions, he 
was not always in harmony with the majority of his party. In 
his first speech in Congress, and the first speech made in the 
new Hall of the House of Representatives, an opportunity care- 
fully chosen by him with the skill of an actor, he took ground 
against the Lecompton constitution, strongly recommended by 
Mr. Buchanan's Administration. He supported several meas- 
ures during the war not approved by his political associates. 
He spoke in favor of the amendment abolishing slavery, though 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 251 

he did not vote for it. By instinct, education, and association, 
especially by family ties, he was against slavery. On all other 
questions of a political character he was b}^ inheritance, and no 
doubt by conviction, a Democrat, and faithfully followed the 
tenets of his party. I do not consider this a fault, but a virtue. 

While lionesty of purpose and motive should be conceded to 
all parties and sects, it is no discredit to even the wisest of men 
to yield his individiial opinions to the deliberate conviction of 
the great body of the people with whom in the main he agreed 
in order to secure a common purpose or desire. The right to 
protest and discuss and even to secede from a party or sect is 
open to every individual and should be exercised when clear 
and honest conviction demands it, but such conviction is more 
frequently caused by chagrin, disappointment, or egotism than 
b>- sober reason. It is enough to say of Mr. Cox that he was 
an honest partisan, but neither a bitter nor revengeful one. 
He was a Democrat, but he knew that the great party to which 
he was opposed was as strong and faithful in their supjsort of 
the rights of the people as the party to which he belonged, but 
they differed as to the best means to secure these rights. 

We constantly forget in our political contests that the great 
body of the questions we have to decide are non-political. Upon 
these we divide without feeling and without question of motives. 
On all such questions Mr. Cox was always on the humanitarian 
side. He has linked his name in honorable association with 
many humane, kindly, and reformatory laws. If not the founder 
or father of our Life-Saving Service, he was at least its guardian 
and guide. He took an active part in promoting measures of 
conciliation after the war. He supported the policy of the 
homestead law against the veto of Mr. Buchanan. He was the 
advocate of liberal compensation to letter-carriers, of reducing 



252 Address of Mr. Sherman^ of O/iio, on the 

the hours of labor, and of liberal pensions to Union soldiers. I 
doubt if there is a single measure on the statute books, during 
his time, which appeals to sympath)', charity, justice, and kind- 
ness for the poor, the distressed, or the unfortunate which did 
not receive his hearty support. If kindness bestowed is never 
lost, then Mr. Cox has left an inheritance to thousands who 
will revere his memory while life lasts. 

Perhaps his most pleasing trait was his genial, social manner. 
Always gay, cheerful, and humorous, he scattered flowers on 
the pathway of all his friends and acquaintances. His wit was 
free from sting. If in the excitement of debate he inflicted pain, 
he was ready and prompt to heal the wound, and died, as far as I 
know, without an enemy or an unhealed feud. I had with him 
more than one political debate and controversy, but the}- left no 
coolness or irritation. In my last conversation with him, in 
the spring of 1889, we talked of old times and early scenes more 
than thirty years past and gone, and he recalled them only to 
praise those who differed with him. He had malice for none, 
but charity for all. In that endearing tie of husband and wife, 
which more than any other tests the qualities of a man, both he 
and his wife were models of unbroken affection and constant 
help for each other. 

The most enduring fame of ]\Ir. Cox will not rest upon what 
he said in Congress or did in Congress. His speeches are buried 
in the vast mausoleum of Congressional Records. But few will 
take the pains to select the wheat from the chaff, and what he 
did will be forgotten with the generation of which he was a 
part. His fame will rest mainly upon his numerous writings 
in many fields of literature. This was the occupation in which 
he took most delight. He was bred a lawyer, but he earh- 
abandoned his profession and became an editor of a political 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 253 

paper. Nor did he devote his time to political questions, but 
soon became distinguished as a brilliant writer on purely literary 
topics. One of his pen pictures — a model of its class — gave him 
the name of "Sunset Cox," of which he was never ashamed. 

He was fond of travel and wrote several books descriptive of 
scenes and incidents of travel. He also wrote historical works. 
He entered as an author, a lecturer, and a speaker many fields 
of research, and in all sustained his reputation as a brilliant 
writer and speaker, always interesting and often eloquent, a 
close student who always mastered his subject, and withal a man 
of generous impulses, kind and cheerful nature, a true friend, 
and a faithful public servant. This all can be said truh- and 
without exaggeration of Mr. Cox. All that is left for me is to 
express my sincere sorrow for his untimely death. He did not 
contemplate death when I saw him last. His death was the 
first news I received on ray arrival in New York, in September 
last, from a journey abroad. I am told that he met the com- 
mon fate of all with patient confidence and an assured hope and 
belief in the doctrines of the Christian faith and the promise of 
future life. 

It is fortunate that man can not know the future, and espe- 
cially that future beyond human life. Socrates, when con- 
demned to death, consoled himself with the inconceivable 
happiness, in a future state, when he would converse and asso- 
ciate with and question the mighty array of heroes, patriots, 
and sages that preceded him. He said to his judges, " It is now 
time to depart — for me to die, for you to live. But which of us 
is going to a better state is unknown to ever>' one but God." 
We can not lift the veil, but ma\- we not share the hope of the 
wisest of men that our farewell to associates who go before us 
is but a brief parting for a better life ? 



254 Address of Mr. I'esi, of Missouri^ on the 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Vest, of Missouri, 

Mr. President: It is not my purpose to speak at length of 
the public life of Samuel S. Cox. To do so would simply be 
to present a resume of the political history of this country for 
the last thirty years. When I came to the Senate twelve years 
ago my first public duty of any importance was service upon a 
joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives to 
inquire into the causes of the decay of the American merchant 
marine. During my service upon that committee, of which 
Mr. Cox was a member from the House of Representatives, I 
came to know him well, and personal and political sympathy 
caused our acquaintance to rapidly ripen into earnest friendship. 

He was in some respects the most remarkable man I have 
known in public affairs. Whilst there was nothing majestic or 
rugged in his nature, he was beyond question better adapted to 
public life as known to the American people than any other 
man in all my acquaintance. He was capable of indefatigable 
labor, with varied accomplishments, versatile talents, wonder- 
ful eloquence, and a tenacity of purpose which knew nothing 
like failure. He was a partisan, but a partisan in the highest 
and best meaning of the term. He fought for his party because 
the principles of that party were, in his judgment, necessary to 
the welfare of his country. He never shrank from any political 
hazard, from any political contest. There was not a rivet in 
his armor that had not been tried b\- thrust of sword and point 
of spear. All that he was, all that he could give, was unre- 
servedly and without hesitation devoted to the principles and 
policy of the great orgauization of which he was so illustrious 
a member. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 255 

He was a man of mercurial temperament, with whom the 
lights and shadows came and went as on a summer landscape, 
and like all public men of intellect and labor he tired at times 
and almost despaired. In 1884, when I heard that he contem- 
plated accepting the mission to Turkey, I called upon him as a 
personal friend and remonstrated against it. I urged upon him 
the necessity, with a Democratic Administration coming into 
power after a quarter of a century, for our best talent and most 
experienced leaders in both branches of Congress, and I placed 
before him the great crisis that in the history of our party de- 
manded his presence in the House of Representatives. 

His answer was pathetic. He said, ''I am tired; tired almost 
unto death. I am tired of rolling this eternal stone up the hill 
to see it roll back again to the bottom. I am tired of this eter- 
nal toil without return. I am tired of the excitement, of, it 
seems to me, the fruitless public labor that has been my lot for 
so many years. I want rest, and I can find it amidst the 
mosques and minarets of the finished civilization of the East. 
I can find it in the land of sunshine and flowers, completed 
centuries ago, where I can dream away the balance of this life, 
so much of which has been spent in toil and excitement." 
The year afterwards I received from him a letter stating that 
he had been disappointed in the East and would return soon to 
the United vStates, and I welcomed him back to public life as a 
soldier welcomes a comrade whose blade he knows is never 
absent in the hour of trial and danger. 

I was the cause, to some extent, of the first address he deliv- 
ered in the House of Representatives after his return, and it 
was in connection with legislation affecting the Yellowstone 
National Park. We agreed to meet there the summer after- 
wards. I was prevented by circumstances beyond my control 



256 Address of Mr. Vest, of Missouri, on titc 

from keeping the engagement, but I met him after he came out 
of that splendid reservation at Helena, Mont., and there we 
talked, under the shadow of the great mountains, of tlie past 
and the coming future. We then anticipated our meeting again 
at the assembling of the present Congress. But, Mr. President, 
he has gone to a higher congress, whose sessions are eternal. 

The history of Mr. Cox will always be connected not onh- 
with the politics of this country, but with objects of the highest 
and noblest philanthropy. My friend from Indiana [Mr. Voor- 
liees] has spoken of his splendid oratory in behalf of the Jews 
of Poland. He also devoted many years to those who "go 
down to the sea in ships," and to the humble postman, who 
brings tidings of joy or sorrow to each household in the land. 

x\fter his return from the Pacific coast I received from him 
the last of his literary productions, The Isles of the Princes; 
or, the Pleasures of Prinkipo, and in the closing words of this 
charming book, which seems in every page to breathe the 
genius, the philanthropy, and the vivacity of this wonderful 
man, a fitting epitaph is found for his tomb. This is an ac- 
count of his last summer abroad, on the island of Prinkipo, 
where with the companion of his life's journey he attempted 
to realize that dream of complete rest for which he had left liis 
country: 

The story of our summer is told. Tiie wreaths begin to wither on the 
tomb. A thousand thoughts and studies hang over tliem. But these 
are not dead garlands. The angels of memory will resume their places 
at the gate of this paradise. The flaming sword drives us into the old 
and busy world, under the glaring sun and the uncloistered heat and 
dust of our earnest and active American life; but amidst all the turmoil 
and worry of that life, we shall turn to the ''Pleasures of Prinkipo." 

In the shadow of thy pines, liy the sliores of thy sea, 
On the hills of thy beauty, our heart is with thee. 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 257 



Address of Mr, Dixon, of Rhode Island. 

Mr. President: A strong personal attachment, at first in- 
spired b)' many kind attentions long ago, impels me to offer the 
tribute of affectionate regard to the distinguished dead. Many 
years his junior, I was attracted to Mr. Cox by such thoughtful 
consideration as men of experience atid years can show to those 
much younger than themselves. In the kindness and friendli- 
ness of his life he exerted such a winning influence on those 
with whom he came in contact that he made friends of young 
and old. 

From the time Samuel Sullivan Cox entered Brown Uni- 
versity until just previous to his death, when he wrote, "I am 
beginning to j'earn after early memories of Brown and Provi- 
dence," he had a great fondness for that venerable institution 
and the city where it stands. There it was he early displayed 
those brilliant qualities of mind that in after years made him 
renowned; there it was his youthful powers were cultivated, 
bent, and trained, and there it was, as I have often heard him 
say, he acquired that analytic habit that became a part of his 
intellectual power. Then and there it was he formed associa- 
tions in Rhode Island that ended onl\- with his life. 

Very naturally after leaving college his tastes led him to de- 
vote himself to a professional career, and he practiced law in 
Zanesville, Ohio, his native town, until 1853, when he moved 
to Columbus and became editor of the Columbus Statesman; 
then turning his attention to politics he soon entered public life. 

Always a strong partisan, he bore a conspicuous part in the 
councils of the Democratic party; yet when necessary to do 
what he considered right he could step across the party line. I 
H. Mis. 243 17 



268 Address of Mr. Dixon, of Rhode Island, on the 

leave all commendation for party fealty to his party associates. 
It was by no means on account of his political affiliation that 
his closest personal friends were bound to him. 

In his public career, extending through so many years, where 
he won an enviable national reputation (his first election to the 
House of Representatives from Ohio was in 1856, and after re- 
moving to New York he was elected from a New York City 
district to the House almost successively until his death), there 
is much to allure attention and attract remark. 

Sensitive to the blows and thrusts of factional animosity, he 
shrank from the keen rancor that has become too common a 
part of public debate and difference. He would naturally "be- 
ware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in" his abilities, his 
mental resources, and his ready wit made him a bold and fear- 
less adversary. Mr. Cox never entered into any contest bearing 
malice, and if surprised into a loss of temper or suddenly ex- 
cited to hot words he was prompt to express regret and ask for 
that forgiveness he was ever ready to bestow. 

When a man has been standing for many years in the fierce 
light of political controversy it is generally forgotten that he 
has any individuality, private life, or character except such 
character as has been imposed upon him by political allies or 
opponents. 

But, sir, personal characteristics drew friends to Mr. Cox; 
his individuality kept that friendship. While others laud his 
statesmanship and commend his public acts, I would pay my 
humble tribute to the man himself and to those qualities and 
characteristics that won him friends. 

In all his relations with men Mr. Cox was benevolent and 
kind; always accessible to the unfortunate. Interested in works 
of charity, he was so ready with his kindly aid that when oppor- 



Life and Cliaractcr of Samuel S. Cox. 259 

tunity presented an occasion to do good, with earnest zeal he 
would devote himself to the kind purpose, whether that pur- 
pose was directed toward the establishment of a national S5'stem 
for life-saving on the sea and coast or was only secretl)' called 
forth by the pitiful recital of some individual distress. It was 
not alone on account of his generous readiness to aid the un- 
fortunate that friends were drawn to him, for in his intercourse 
with those whose ample fortunes and full stores of this world's 
goods left no material want he could supply, this cheerful, 
genial man daily added to the number of his friends, and all 
through this broad land of ours his name was known and in 
almost every little town he had at least one friend. 

In the city where he lived, so greatly was he honored and 
esteemed that when he died a vast assemblage of his fellow- 
townsmen met to pay to him the homage of their respect and 
love. That gathering was a grander tribute to the worth and 
goodness of the man than all the adulation and heartless solem- 
nity of stately ceremonials in high places. 

Mr. Cox had cultivated by studious application the strong 
and vigorous mind he had inherited, had expanded his powers 
by e.xtensive travel, and stored in a retentive memory what he 
had read and seen. Gifted with an ease and felicity of expres- 
sion, he became a frequent and most interesting contributor to 
periodical publications, and was the author of many entertain- 
ing books, infusing into each the cheerfulness of his bright 
mind. 

To all appearance he had just reached the summit of his 
mental strength; he seemed adequately equipped to undertake 
still more laborious tasks. Never had he been so well fitted to 
serve his constituency and his country. In the full possession 
of his ripened powers he did not perceive that age was coming 



260 Ar/f/j-ess of Air. Evarts, of Neic York, on the 

on. To his full hope the end seemed still far distant, but the 
days of his appointed time were numbered, and on the loth day 
of September last Samuel Sullivan Cox entered into rest. 

An active, earnest, noble life has ended. Another pilgrim 
has made the journey to that — 

Country liordering on this land 
Sealed in eternal silence here, where all 
Are journeying — a region which we call 
The empire of the dead. No mortal's hand 
Hath ever mapped its coast. Upon its strand 
Discovery's anchor ne'er hath been let fall. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. EVARTS, OF NEW YORK, 

Mr. President: I might well ask to occupy some closing 
moments of the declining hours of this day in speaking of my 
dead friend if I had no other relation to him and to his char- 
acter and his career than that which attends him as an emi- 
nent public servant of the State which he so long represented 
so ably in Congress, or for those varied excellences of character 
and of life which made him a notable figure in our history for 
so many years. But it .so happens, Mr. President, that for more 
than twenty years I had the pleasure of enjoying his friendship, 
at all times agreeable to me, never broken and always accom- 
panied with esteem for his life and his manners and his career. 

It is difficult to conceive a career more versatile and at the 
same time more ample and attractive than that which marks 
the course of this young native of Ohio from the time when he 
started — and at a great pace, which he kept up to the end of 
his life — until the time of his death, when he had become the 
most eminent of the public men of his party in the great State 
of New York. He was a scholar; he was an editor; he was a 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 261 

lawyer; he was a politician; he was an orator; he was a philoso- 
pher; he was a traveler; he was an author; he was a diplomatist ; 
he was a wit, and yet the whole warp and woof of his life was 
that of a member of Congress and in the active pursuit of poli- 
tics. 

In all these regards, if it can not be said of him that he ever 
did any one thing that no other man could do, yet no one but 
must say and feel that, within the field of our observation and 
our contemporary history, no man has done so many things so 
well as our deceased colleague, Mr. Cox. 

But we must add to our estimate of this career the circum- 
stance that he lived in an age and in a sphere in public life 
when the nation was awakened and aroused, was rent and torn, 
and then restored and re-established, and that the thirty years 
of what makes up his public notice and his public service was 
always upon such a theater and occupied with great actors and 
great actions. We must, then, all agree that in our calm civili- 
zation and in our established institutions, ever accepted and 
ever expected to endure — we must agree that there have been 
great opportunities of the highest dignity and the highest 
responsibility, and that these opportunities were well used by 
this Ohio statesman, this New York statesman, whose death 
we lament. 

Mr. President, in all the intercourse that I had with Mr. Cox, 
though we were always opposed to one another in politics, 
always representing on every scene of action in our own State 
opposite views, with opposite alliances, I do not know that in 
any instance I can recall any action of his that seems to me 
unsuitable to that career which he had espoused, that duty 
which he had undertaken to fulfill. 

It is idle to talk under free institutions, under representa- 



262 Address of Mr. Evarts, of Neiv York, on the 

tive government, in derogation of parties and of partisans. 
All the public life of a free country is carried on b}' parties 
and all are led by partisans. You might as well criticise the 
career and the methods of the soldier and of the great captains 
of armies for being devoted to the warfare and the battle and 
the storm through which their paths of duty lie. These are 
our paths, these are our duties, and the proper criticism of us 
all is with what fidelity and with what advantage to the in- 
terests that we espouse we have maintained our place in them. 

I do not think, in looking back through thirty years among 
the eminent men of the Democratic party in the State of New 
York, that there is any one that can be fairly considered as 
having been more engaged, and more usefully engaged, and more 
constantly engaged, in public affairs than Mr. Cox. 

This is a singular honor to one wlio comes from a native, a 
great State, with a career there established, that Mr. Cox was 
received with open arms by the great party and the great popu- 
lation of our city and all that make up the interests of our 
State. But this is nevertheless true. He became the idol of 
the earnest and warm-hearted and sometimes too tumultuous 
Democracy of our great city; but he also had a warm place in 
the affection and regard of his political opponents in that wide 
community. There is no trace or token throughout his life of 
bitterness or resentment towards him in all this busy scene of 
his activities. And thus, throughout and in all regards, Mr. 
Cox stands out a notable figure, from the boy editor on to the 
final death scene of the statesman. All may study it; all may 
reflect upon it. 

Mr. President, these mortuary meditations and reflections 
which arise upon the contemplation of death, whether they be 
in the secret chambers of our own hearts or whether among 



Life and Character of Samuel S. Cox. 263 

faithful friends, or on this larger scene of public observation of 
men whose lives have served the community — these are not 
without their greatest and most beneficial effects upon the per- 
sonal life and upon the public conduct of all who submit to 
these reflections. The Patriarch who had known all of the 
vicissitudes of joy and sorrow, of pride and contumely, and 
had learned patience by this experience, was yet forced to cry 
out, ' ' Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of 
trouble." But the royal poet of Israel, who knew every step of 
life himself also, from the sheep-cot to the throne, he, with 
exultant and triumphant view of human life and of the endow- 
ments of man by his Maker, said: '' Thou has made him a little 
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 
honor. ' ' 

This wide sweep in human affairs between that view which 
deplores man's life as lamentable and that which exalts him as 
in nature and facultv almost divine — in this life of ours of cul- 
tivated, educated. Christianized communities — takes in all the 
pessimists, and all the optimists; all the egoists and all the 
altruists; alk those who build up and those who destroy; all 
those who touch nothing that they do not adorn and all those 
who touch nothing that they do not defile; all those of the evil 
eye of envy ani all those of the pitiful eye of charity; all those 
who ennoble and expand and all those who belittle and bedrag- 
gle; all those who sap the virtues of society and those who feed 
their healthful growth; all those, in fine, that would lift a mor- 
tal to the skies and all those that would drag an angel down. 

Mr. President, when a man's days are ended there conies 
after his death a judgment even in this life. Nature and society 
pass in a kind and yet a just survey upon each completed life. 
On which side of these opposing views of human interests and 



264 Address of Mr. Evarts, of New York. 

human hopes which I have portrayed shall the life and conduct 
of our deceased friend find a place? When the woven tapestry 
of the fabric of his life, with its many bright colors and its gay 
and graceful figures, is folded away among the leaves of fate 
for the instruction and the delight of those who shall peruse 
that great book, all men shall read of him that he "served 
the state from boyhood up, labored for, loved her," and as for 
society and friendship and mankind, all his work was to adorn, 
to ennoble, and to expand; all such are enrolled in memories 
that will not suffer their remembrance to die. 

I move, Mr. President, the adoption of the resolutions. 

The President pro tempore. The question is on the motion 
of the Senator from New York [Mr. Evarts] that the resolu- 
tions which have been read, by the Secretary be adopted. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

Mr. Evarts. I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to. 



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